Recent Advances in Lead-Free Piezoelectric Materials: Structure, Properties, and Applications

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, etc. One of the key questions in the development of eco-friendly piezoelectric lies in how to achieve high piezoelectricity and large hysteresis-free electrostrain responses in a facile and effective manner. Thermal stability of piezoelectric properties is also a topic of concern. Considering lead toxicity, there is interest in developing piezoelectric materials that are biocompatible and environmentally friendlier.

Over the past six decades, lead-based ceramics have gained much attention because of their excellent piezoelectric properties and high Curie temperatures. This giant piezoelectric response is intimately related with the complex structure because of the existence of a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) where the crystal structure changes dramatically at an atomic scale and evolves in nanoscale textures. As a result of this phase separation, which develops over different length scales, modern piezoelectric materials are generally complex, and a deeper understanding of their functionality require advanced experimental probes and theoretical tools.

On this basis, the scientific community has a keen, renewed interest to understand the mechanism responsible for such large peizoresponse, which is still unclear regardless of more than six decades of investigation.

It is our pleasure to invite researchers and scientists to submit your research work to this Special Issue. The objective of this Special Issue is to present studies in the field of piezoelectric materials and mechanism responsible for large peizoresponse. 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;
• Nanoscopic Phase Separation;
• Gaint piezoresponse;
• Magnetostriction effect;
• Multiferroic relaxor ceramic.

Dr. Gaetano Campi
Dr. Shailendra Rajput
Dr. Xinghao Hu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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
•  permittivity
•  spontaneous transition
•  hysteresis-free electrostrain
•  complex materials