Piezoelectric Materials

Dear Colleagues,

Piezoelectric materials constitutes a well-established, yet dynamic, field of research activities with numerous practical applications, such as sensors and actuators, covering almost all human activities (communications, transport, health, energy, manufacture and quality control to name a few). The piezoelectricity (conversion of mechanical into electrical energy and vice versa) was discovered by Pierre and Jacques Curie in 1880. It characterizes non-centrosymmetric materials, such as quartz, hidroxyapatite of the bones, or drawn silk films. Ferroelectrics are a special class of piezoelectrics, being multifunctional crystals whose structure possesses a spontaneous dipole which can switch between two equilibrium states. The piezoelectricity of barium titanium oxide (BaTiO₃) ceramics, i.e., randomly oriented ionic policrystals, therefore isotropic and centrosymmetric materials, remained unexplained until 1944. At this time, the role of “poling” by an applied electric field, which causes ferroelectric dipole orientation, was understood. From that date, scientific areas concerning ferro-piezoelectric materials such as ceramics, composites, single-crystals and thin films have grown steadily wider. An increasing effort has been devoted to obtain high sensitivity and lead-free composition materials since 2003. This was driven by the toxicity of lead oxide, the main component of commercial Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) ceramics, and by current directives for environmental protection, demanding the elimination of lead from the piezoelectric components in devices. This remains a primary scientific challenge. Mechanical strains generated by the piezoelectric effect in ferroelectric oxides are relatively low and must be amplified for practical purposes. Field-induced structural phase transitions are among those mechanisms that can generate a massive mechanical strain, one order of magnitude higher than the piezoelectric one in ferroelectric oxides with a perovskite-type structure. Such a mechanism has recently led to a new generation of non-linear actuators. Advances in characterization techniques, ultra-high electromechanical response, energy harvesting using piezoelectrics, flexoelectricty or piezoelectronics are other examples of recent topics of interest within this field.

Lorena Pardo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.