Advances in Ferroelectric, Construction, Luminescent Ceramics and Crystals

Dear Colleagues,

Today, many materials are used that belong to the group of third-generation intelligent materials: ferroelectrics, piezoelectrics, electrets, multiferroics, phosphors, scintillators, etc. Each industrially developed material, as a rule, occupies a certain relatively narrow niche in terms of the possibilities of its application in practice. Vivid examples of such materials are BaTiO₃, PZT-19, NaNbO₃, KNbO₃, LiNbO₃, LiТаO₃, CdWO₄, ReТа(Nb)O₄ (Er,Gd,Y,Yb), etc. In intelligent functional materials science, almost every subsequent decade is marked by a new vector of development. In the 1950s, ferroelectricity was discovered in BaTiO₃, and as a result, materials based on it were actively studied. In the 1960s and 1970s, compositions based on the binary PZT system (Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃) became the center of interest. In the 1980s, interest shifted towards four- and five-component solid solutions. In the 1990s, lead-free materials science began to develop ((Na,Li)NbO₃, (Na, K)NbO₃). In the 2000s, multicomponent lead-free niobate materials predominated. In 2010, multi-element modified lead-free materials attracted the attention of scientists. The 2020s have so far been marked by the modification of niobate and tantalate REE materials and the development of complex compositions, including compounds with fundamentally different properties. Thus, the current stage in the investigation of ceramic and crystalline functional materials is characterized by the complication of basic compositions due to the introduction of nonisostructural components into the initial systems and their doping with various modifiers. The complication of compositions leads to the implementation and integration of various macro-responses of materials (ferroelectric, piezoelectric, thermophysical, mechanical, optical, luminescent, scintillation, photovoltaic, etc.). As a consequence, the application of such multifunctional intelligent environments expands.

Mechanical properties are crucial in the study of solid materials. Such properties as Young's modulus characterize interatomic interactions and macroscopic anisotropy of a solid. The study of the elasticity constants reveal many fundamental features of the interaction of particles in matter, determines the regions of the phonon instability of the crystal lattice, and much more.

Obtaining high-density ceramics with good mechanical characteristics requires the use of extremely fine, sintering-active powders with an average size of several tens of nanometers. Therefore, increased attention should be paid to the methods of synthesizing ceramics compositions. The sol–gel synthesis of polycomponent compositions, in contrast to solid-phase synthesis, involves more accurate adherence to the specified ratio of components. The mixture is homogenized at the atomic level; loss of components is eliminated due to the absence of intensive grinding and long-term high-temperature calcination. Sol–gel synthesis also provides size control of individual particles; ultrafine and nanosized powders can be obtained.

Thus, the current trends in the development of ceramic intelligent materials are the search for optimal polycomponent compositions and methods for synthesizing initial powders and ceramic sintering methods.

Dr. Mikhail N. Palatnikov
Dr. Nikolay Vasilievich Sidorov
Guest Editors

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