Lead Free Piezoelectric Materials for Clean and Sustainable Energy

Dear Colleagues,

Piezoelectric materials can convert electric energy to mechanical energy and vice versa. These materials have found many applications in actuators, sensors, energy harvesting tools, etc. One of the key questions in the development of eco-friendly piezoelectric is how to achieve high piezoelectricity and large hysteresis-free electrostrain responses in a facile and effective manner. The thermal stability of piezoelectric properties is also a topic of concern. Considering lead toxicity, at present there is interest in developing piezoelectric materials that are biocompatible and more environmentally friendly.

Over the past six decades, lead-based ceramics have gained much attention due to their excellent piezoelectric properties and high Curie temperatures. Their giant piezoelectric responses are due to the existence of a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). The scientific community is interested in understanding the mechanism responsible for such large piezo responses, which remains unclear despite more than six decades of investigation.

It is our pleasure to invite researchers and scientists to submit their research work to this Special Issue. The objective of this Special Issue is to present studies in the field of piezoelectric materials focusing on the mechanism responsible for large piezo responses. We look forward to receiving your outstanding theoretical and experimental research findings.

Key topics include:

• Ferroelastic and ferroelectric materials;
• Phase transitions;
• Domain wall motion;
• Domain engineering;
• Tricritical phenomena;
• Morphotropic phase boundary;
• Giant piezo response;
• Magnetostriction effect;
• Multiferroic relaxor ceramic.

Dr. Shailendra Rajput
Dr. Xinghao Hu
Dr. Sabyasachi Parida
Dr. Abhishek Sharma
Guest Editors

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Clean Technologies is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly 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 1600 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.

• lead-free ferroelectrics
• material design
• piezoelectric coefficient
• electrostrain
• energy harvesting