Barium Titanate-Lead Titanate (BaTiO3-PbTiO3) solid solution with B-site Cu-modification

Abstract

From precious stones to fundamental scientific interests, oxides have been a major part of research in the field of chemistry, physics, material science, electronics, electrical engineering, etc. Transition metal oxides show a wide range of exotic properties, which include high-TC superconductivity, ferromagnetism, gas sensing, magnetoresistance, and magneto-capacitance. Perovskite structures are a stable structure and hence can accommodate different transition metal ions, unravelling interesting physics and numerous functionalities and applications in the field of magnetism, ferroelectricity and electrical transport. Perovskites find many important technological applications. Keeping exotic features of simple and complex oxides in mind, we have focused on the study of perovskite oxides. There are approximately more than 100 elements and every element has a unique electronic configuration, which is determined by its 3-D electron distribution, atomic number (Z) and energies. These elements can be categorized as metallic, gaseous, or nonmetallic solids. Therefore, each element is alloyed with other elements and forms new materials. These are classified as metals, semiconductors, ceramics and polymers. Each class has its distinct properties, i.e., in metals, delocalized electrons provide the force that holds the positive ions together and the bonding is metallic. In semiconductors, strong covalent bonds are formed between atoms (e.g. Si, Ge, GaAs, CdTe, and InP). Polymers consist of different organic atoms and molecules attached with very long C-based chains. Ceramics are solid compounds that are made by sintering. Due to their versatile properties, they are used widely in many applications, e.g., electronic and manufacturing industries [1], [2]. Ceramics are different from glasses and single crystals as they are composed of an aggregate of randomly oriented crystallites intimately bonded together to form a solid and have anisotropic character and are polycrystalline materials.