Sustainable Dielectric, Piezoelectric and Ferroelectric Materials: Synthesis, Characterization and Modelling

Dear Colleagues,

Lead (Pb)-free polar oxides, as environmentally sustainable alternatives to their Pb-based counterparts, have reached a certain level of maturity, since research in this area started about a decade and a half ago. Here, the broader term ‘polar oxide’ is meant to include materials with different polarization behavior in response to applied electric fields, such as ferroelectrics, antiferroelectrics and relaxors. They are indispensable in different technological fields including high-power capacitors for power conversion, sensors and actuators for smart applications, energy harvesting from waste heat or ambient vibrations, healthcare devices and space exploration.

While several promising Pb-free ferroelectrics have come forth in recent years, their broader industry wide adoption has not kept pace with expectations. We identify three principal issues for this scenario: (a) easy and reliable synthesis of complex compositions, (b) characterization of atomic scale and mesoscale structural complexities, and (c) modelling of structure-property correlations under different operating conditions.

This Special Issue aims to convene recent scientific breakthroughs to address these issues using approaches including, but not limited to, new materials synthesis and processing methods, electron/X-ray/neutron based structural characterization tools, and modelling techniques including first-principle computations or data-driven modelling.

Dr. Alicia Manjón-Sanz
Dr. Abhijit Pramanick
Guest Editors

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• piezoelectrics
• ferroelectrics
• lead-free
• synthesis
• processing
• structure–property relationships
• powder diffraction
• modelling techniques