Non-centrosymmetric materials that can be polarized under applied mechanical stress or electric field are piezoelectric in nature and the phenomenon is called piezoelectric effect. They are broadly classified as direct and converse piezoelectric effects. Piezo-ceramics have a wide range of applications such as piezoelectric actuators, sensors, and transducers. Among piezoceramics, ferroelectric based materials are imperative owing to the existence of spontaneous polarization in these systems. Several materials are investigated starting from naturally occurring crystals to synthetic ceramics but are limited in their application range. The piezoelectric and ferroelectrics properties of the solid-solutions based on lead zirconate and lead titanate called lead zirconate titanate (PZT), lead magnesium niobate-lead titanate (PMN-PT), lead zinc niobate-lead titanate (PZN-PT) (near morphotrophic phase boundary (MPB)) demonstrate their potential for myriad device applications besides inciting a great deal of academic interest. They have been widely used for commercial applications such as ultra sound transducers, ultrasonic motors, fuel injector actuators, nano positioners in scanning electron microscope etc. However, these materials contain more than 60% lead by weight and volatization of Pb at higher temperature, and disposal of lead results in environmental pollution and are fatal to human health. This gave an insight to search for lead-free solid solutions covering a wide spectrum of applications akin to that of PZT. The search for alternatives to lead based piezoelectric materials is now being focused on modified barium titanates and alkali niobates in which the incidence of MPB was reported similar to that of PZT. In this thesis the results pertaining to the various investigations carried out on modified barium titanates, Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3- x(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3(BCZT), and alkali niobates, potassium sodium niobate (KNN), are presented. Especially, lead-free piezoelectric material Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-x(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3(BCZT) with x= 0.5 has attracted great attention due to its excellent piezoelectric properties. Contrary to the other Pb-free systems, the BZT–BCT phase diagram shows a Morphotropic Phase Boundary (MPB) characterized by the existence of a tri-critical point (TCP), which is also the case for PZT and PMN–PT. One drawback of the BZT–xBCT (x=0.5) is its high sintering temperature (where it exhibits the largest d33 of 550 – 620pC/N). Several methods have been adopted and various additives are being added to bring down the sintering temperature, since high d33 requires an optimized sintering temperature of around 1540oC which also shows excellent ferroelectric properties. However, the methods that were reported in the literature to synthesize the above materials do not guarantee compositional homogeneity and also there is a limitation in obtaining ceramics of enhanced grain size as the ceramics comprising larger grains are demonstrated to exhibit high piezoelectric coefficients. Therefore to address these issues, the simple soft chemical route was adopted to synthesize chemically homogenous powder and the influence of microstructure (grain size) and ferroelectric domains on piezoelectric properties of the BCZT at nano and micron sized crystallites was studied. The results obtained are classified into chapter 3 and chapter 4 accordingly apart from introduction, materials, and methods. Another challenging area of research in lead free piezoceramics for nanoscale device application is to synthesize materials and to visualize the piezoelectric properties at nanoscale with controlled shapes and sizes. For that, Mg2+ ion was chosen as the dopant especially on Ba2+ sites to synthesize Ba0.95Mg0.05Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BMZT) nanocrystals, as MgO is known to be an effective grain growth inhibitor in many functional and structural ceramics. Therefore in the present thesis Mg2+ ion was chosen to exercise a strict control over the grain size. The results obtained from this title compound are discussed in chapter 5. Another class of material is K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN), which has been considered a good candidate for lead-free piezoelectric materials. KNN exhibits an MPB around 50% K and 50% Na separating two orthorhombic phases from the complete solid solution of NaNbO3 (Anti-ferroelectric) and KNbO3 (ferroelectric). The major problem associated with KNN ceramic is its complex densification process; difficulty in processing and volatilization of sodium at higher sintering temperature leading to stoichiometric discrepancy. To overcome these difficulties, in the present investigations, an attempt has been made to fabricate KNN ceramics by employing the liquid phase sintering method. In this chapter, B2O3 and borate based glass (0.5 Li2O - 0.5K2O- 2B2O3) were chosen to improve the densification, grain size and their effects on the physical properties of the KNN ceramics are discussed in chapter 6. In chapter 7, KNN crystallites (with size varying from nano to micrometers) were dispersed in the Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) matrix to obtain a polymer/nano or micro crystal composites and the effect of nano and micron sized KNN fillers on the structural, dielectric and piezoelectric properties were investigated. The results obtained pertaining to these aforementioned investigations are organized as follows. In Chapter 1, a brief introduction to the field of ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity, and piezoelectric materials. The emphasis has been on the ferroelectric based piezoelectric materials belonging to the perovskite family of oxides. A brief exposure to the conventional lead based piezoceramics, lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is discussed. Furthermore, drawbacks associated with lead based ceramics are highlighted and alternatives to PZT based ceramics such as modified barium titanate and alkali niobate solid solutions are focused, leading to the motivation and objectives of our work. Chapter 2 describes the various experimental techniques that are employed to synthesize and characterize the materials under investigation. Chapter 3 deals with details concerning the characterization of Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) nanocrystals prepared via complex oxalate precursor route at a relatively low temperature (800°C/5h). The phase formation temperature of BCZT at nanoscale was confirmed by thermogravimetric (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA) followed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) studies. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was carried out to confirm the complete decomposition of oxalate precursor into BCZT phase. The XRD and profile fitting revealed the coexistence of cubic and tetragonal phases and was also corroborated by Raman study. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies carried out at 800°C and 1000°C/5h heat treated BCZT powder revealed the crystallite size to be in the range of 20 – 50 nm and 40 – 200 nm respectively. The optical band gap for BCZT nanocrystalline powder was obtained using Kubelka Munk function and was found to be around 3.12 ± 0.02 eV and 3.03± 0.02 eV respectively for 800°C (20 – 50 nm) and 1000°C/5h (40 – 200 nm) heat treated samples. The piezoelectric properties were studied for two different crystallite sizes (30 and 70 nm) using piezoresponse force microscope (PFM). The d33 coefficients obtained for 30 nm and 70 nm sized crystallites were 4 pm/V and 47 pm/V respectively. These were superior to those of BaTiO3 nanocrystal (≈ 50 nm) and promising from the technological/industrial applications perspective. Chapter 4 deals with the studies concerning the effect of microstructure (Grain size) and ferroelectric domains on physical properties of Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 ceramics. Fine powders comprising nanocrystallites of Ba0.85Ca0.15Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 (BCZT) were synthesized via oxalate precursor method which facilitated to obtain homogenous and large grain sized ceramics at a lower sintering temperature. The compacted powders were sintered at various temperatures in the range of 1200°C - 1500°C for an optimized duration of 10h. Interestingly the one that was sintered at 1450°C/10h exhibited well resolved Morphotrophic Phase Boundary (MPB). The average grain size associated with this sample was 30 µm accompanied by higher domain density mostly with 90° twinning. These were believed to make a significant contribution towards obtaining large strain of about 0.2 % and piezoelectric coefficient as high as 563 pC/N. The maximum force that was generated by BCZT ceramic (having 30 µm grain size) was found to be 161 MPa which is much higher than that of known actuator materials such as PZT (40 MPa) and NKN-5-LT (7 MPa). Chapter 5 reports the details involving the synthesis, structural, optical, and piezoelectric response of lead free Ba0.95Mg0.05Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 nanocrystalline powder. Nanocrystalline powders of Ba1-xMgxZr0.1Ti0.9O3 (x=0.025 - 0.1) were synthesized via citrate assisted sol-gel method. Interestingly, the one with x=0.05 in the system Ba1-xMgxZr0.1Ti0.9O3 exhibited fairly good piezoelectric response apart from the other physical properties. The phase and structural confirmation of synthesized powder was established by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Raman Spectroscopic techniques. Two distinct Raman bands i.e., 303 cm-1 and 723 cm-1 characteristic of the tetragonal phase were observed. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed to evaluate the phase decomposition of the as-synthesized Ba0.95Mg0.05Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 sample as a function of temperature. The average crystallite size associated with Ba0.95Mg0.05Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 was calculated using Scherrer formula based on the XRD data and was found to be 25 nm. However, Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscopy studies revealed the average crystallite size to be in the range of 30-40 nm. Kubelka-Munk function was employed to determine the optical band gap of these nanocrystallites. The piezoelectric response of 26 pm/V was observed for Ba0.95Mg0.05Zr0.1Ti0.9O3 nanocrystal by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) technique. Photoluminescence (PL) study carried out on these nanocrystals exhibited a blue emission (470 nm) at room temperature. Chapter 6 describes the effect of the addition of B2O3 on the density, microstructure, dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties of K0.5Na0.5NbO3 ceramics. Boron oxide (B2O3) addition to pre-reacted K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) powders facilitated swift densification at relatively low sintering temperatures which was believed to be a key to minimize potassium and sodium loss. The base KNN powder was synthesized via solid-state reaction route. The different amounts (0.1 to 1 wt %) of B2O3 were added, and ceramics were sintered at different temperatures and durations to optimize the amount of B2O3 needed to obtain KNN pellets with the highest possible density and grain size. The 0.1 wt% B2O3 added KNN ceramics sintered at 1100°C for 7h exhibited higher density (98%) with grain size of ~5 µm. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies confirmed an increase in average grain size with increasing B2O3 content at the appropriate temperature of sintering and duration. The B2O3 added KNN ceramics exhibited improved dielectric and piezoelectric properties at room temperature. For instance, 0.1 wt% B2O3 added KNN ceramic exhibited d33 value of 116 pC/N which is much higher than that of pure KNN ceramics. Interestingly, all the B2O3 added (0.1 to 1wt %) KNN ceramics exhibited polarization – electric field (P vs E) hysteresis loops at room temperature. The remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) values are dependent on the B2O3 content and crystallite size. The details pertaining to the effect of the addition of borate based glass (0.5 Li2O - 0.5K2O- 2B2O3) on the physical properties of K0.5Na0.5NbO3 ceramics are also reported in this chapter. The addition of powdered 0.5 Li2O - 0.5K2O- 2B2O3 (LKBO) glass (0.5 to 2 wt%) to potassium sodium niobate, K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) powder facilitated higher densification which resulted in improved physical properties that include dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroelectric. The required polycrystalline powders of KNN were synthesized through solid-state reaction route, while LKBO glass was obtained via the conventional melt-quenching technique. Pulverized glass was added to KNN powders in different wt% and compacted at room temperature and these were sintered around 1100°C. Indeed the addition of optimum amount (1 wt %) of LKBO glass to KNN ceramics facilitated lowering of sintering temperature accompanied by larger grains (8 µm) with improved density. The dielectric constant (εr) measured at room temperature was 475 (at 10 kHz), whereas it was only 199 for the LKBO glass free KNN. The piezoelectric coefficient (d33) was found to be 130 pC/N for 1wt% LKBO added glass, which was much higher than that of pure KNN ceramics (85 pC/N). Indeed, the LKBO glass added samples did exhibit well saturated P versus E hysteresis loops at room temperature. Though there was no particular trend observed in the variation of Pr with the increase in glass content, the Pr values were higher than those obtained for KNN ceramics. The improved physical properties of KNN ceramics encountered in these studies were primarily attributed to enhancement in density and grain size. Chapter 7 presents a comparative study on the structural, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of nano and micron sized K0.5Na0.5NbO3 fillers in PVDF composites. Polymer nanocrystal composites were fabricated by embedding polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) with different vol% of K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) nanocrystallites using hot-pressing technique. For comparison, PVDF-KNN microcrystal composites of the same compositions were also fabricated which facilitated the crystallite size (wide range) effect studies on the dielectric and piezoelectric properties. The structural, morphological, dielectric, and piezoelectric properties of these nano and micro crystal composites were investigated. The incorporation of KNN fillers in PVDF at both nano and micrometer scale above 10vol% resulted in the formation of polar β-form of PVDF. The room temperature dielectric constant as high as 3273 at 100Hz was obtained for PVDF comprising 40 vol% KNN nanocrystallites due to dipole –dipole interactions (as the presence of β-PVDF is prominent), whereas it was only 236 for PVDF containing the same amount (40 vol%) of micron sized crystallites of KNN at the same frequency. Various theoretical models were employed to predict the dielectric constants of the PVDF-KNN nano and microcrystal composites. PVDF comprising 70 vol% micronmeter sized crystallites of KNN exhibited d33 value of 35pC/N, while the nanocrystal composites of PVDF-KNN did not exhibit any piezoelectric response perhaps due to unrelieved internal stress within each grain besides having less number of domain walls. The Thesis ends with summary and conclusions, though each chapter is provided with conclusions and a complete list of references.

Ceramics and polymer-ceramic composites associated with high dielectric constants are of both scientific and industrial interest as these could be used in devices such as capacitors, resonators and filters. High dielectric constant facilitates smaller capacitive components, thus offering the opportunity to miniaturize the electronic devices. Hence there is a continued interest on high dielectric constant materials over a wide range of temperatures. Recently, CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) ceramic which has centro-symmetric body centered cubic structure has attracted considerable attention due to its large dielectric constant (ε ~104-105) which is nearly independent of frequency (upto 10 MHz) and low thermal coefficient of permittivity (TCK) over 100-600K temperature range. Apart from the high dielectric ceramics, high dielectric polymer-ceramic composites have also become promising materials for capacitor applications. By combining the advantages of high dielectric ceramics and low leakage behaviour of polymers, one can fabricate new hybrid materials with high dielectric constants, and high breakdown field to achieve high volume efficiency and energy storage density for capacitor applications. The CCTO polycrystalline powders were generally prepared by the conventional solid-solid reaction route with CaCO3, TiO2 and CuO as the starting materials. This method of preparation often requires high temperatures and longer durations. To overcome these difficulties, in the present investigations, an attempt has been made to synthesize CCTO by adopting microwave assisted heating technique and wet chemical synthesis routes. Also the CCTO crystallites (size varying from nano to micrometers) incorporated in the Polyvinyliden fluoride (PVDF) and Polyaniline (PANI) matrix and several composites with high dielectric constants were fabricated and investigated. Further, the high dielectric constant glasses in the system (100-x)TeO2-xCaCu3Ti4O12, (x=0.5 to 3) were fabricated by the conventional melt-quenching technique and their structural and dielectric properties were studied. The results obtained pertaining to these aforementioned investigations are classified as follows. Chapter 1 is intended to give basic information pertaining to the dielectrics and various mechanisms associated with high dielectric constants. Brief exposure to the high dielectric constant materials is also given. The structural aspects of CCTO, various synthetic routes adopted for the synthesis and the origin of the dielectric anomaly in CCTO are elaborated. In addition, basic information about the high dielectric polymer-ceramic composites and glasses are provided. In chapter 2 the various experimental techniques that were employed to synthesize and characterize the materials under investigation were discussed. Chapter 3 reports the synthesis and characterization of CaCu3Ti4O12, (CCTO) powders by microwave assisted heating at 2.45 GHz, 1.1kW. The processing and sintering were carried out at different temperatures for varied durations. The optimum calcination temperature using microwave heating was found to be 950oC for 20 minutes to obtain cubic CCTO powders. This is found to be fast and energy efficient as compared to that of the conventional methods. The structure, morphology and dielectric properties of the CCTO ceramic processed by microwave assisted heating were studied via X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and impedance analyser. These studies revealed that, the microwave sintered (MS) samples were less porous than that of the conventional ones. Relative density of about 95% was achieved for the MS pellets (1000oC/60min) while for the conventional sintered (CS) pellets (1100oC/2h) it was only 91%. The dielectric constants for the microwave sintered (1000oC/60min) ceramics were found to vary from 11000 to 6950 in the 100 Hz to 100 kHz frequency range. The presence of larger grains (6-10μm) in the MS samples contributed to the higher dielectric constants. Chapter 4 deals with the synthesis of complex oxalate precursor, CaCu3(TiO)4(C2O4)8 • 9H2O, by the wet chemical route. The various trials and the different reaction schemes involved for the preparation of complex oxalate precursor were highlighted. The oxalate precipitate thus obtained was characterized by the wet chemical analyses, X-ray diffraction, FTIR absorption and TG/DTA analyses. The complex oxalate precursor, CaCu3(TiO)4(C2O4 )8.9H2O was subjected to thermal oxidative decomposition and the products of thermal decomposition were investigated employing XRD,TGA, DTA and FTIR techniques. Nanocrystallites of CaCu3Ti4O12 with the size varying from 30-200 nm were obtained at a temperature as low as 680oC. The nanocrystallites of CaCu3Ti4O12 were characterized using Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and optical reflectance techniques. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern with the zone axis [012] and spot pattern in electron diffraction (ED) indicate their single-crystalline nature. The optical reflectance and ESR spectra indicate that the Cu (II) coordination changes from distorted octahedra to nearly flattened tetrahedra (squashed) to square planar geometry with increasing heat treatment temperature. The powders derived from the oxalate precursor have excellent sinterability resulting in high density ceramics which exhibited giant dielectric constants upto 40,000 (1 kHz) at 25oC, accompanied by low dielectric loss < 0.07. The effect of calcium content on the dielectric properties of CaxCu3Ti4O12 (x=0.90, 0.97, 1.0, 1.1 and 1.15) derived from the oxalate route was described in Chapter 5. The structural, morphological and dielectric properties of the ceramics were studied using X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscope along with Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX), and Impedance analyzer. The X-ray diffraction patterns obtained for the x= 0.97, 1.0 and 1.1 ceramics could be indexed to a body– centered cubic perovskite related structure associated with the space group Im3. The microstructural studies revealed that the grains are surrounded by exfoliated sheets of Cu-rich phase. The microstructure that is evolved for the Ca0.97 ceramic more or less resembles that of the Ca1.0 ceramic, but the density of such exfoliated sheets of cu-rich phase is lesser for the Ca0.97 ceramic and none for Ca1.1 ceramic. The sintered pellet (x=0.97) was ground and thinned to the required thickness (~ 20nm) and analyzed using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of the ceramics exhibited non-linear behaviour. The dielectric properties of these suggest that the sample corresponding to the composition x=0.97, has a reduced dielectric loss while retaining its high dielectric constant. Chapter 6 illustrates the results concerning the fabrication and characterization of nanocrystal composites of Polyaniline (PANI) and CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO). These were prepared using a simple procedure involving in-situ polymerization of aniline in dil. HCl. The PANI and the PANI-CCTO composites were subjected to X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR), Thermo gravimetric, Scanning Electron Microscopic (SEM) and Transmission electron microscopic analyses. The FTIR spectra recorded for the composites was similar to that of pure PANI unlike in the case of X-ray diffraction wherein the characteristics of both PANI and CCTO were reflected. The TGA in essence indicated the composites to have better thermal stability than that of pure PANI. The composite corresponding to 50%CCTO-50%PANI exhibited higher dielectric constant (4.6x106 @100Hz). The presence of the nano crystallites of CCTO embedded in the nanofibers of PANI matrix was established by TEM. The AC conductivity increased slightly upto 2kHz as the CCTO content increased in the PANI which was attributed to the polarization of the charge carriers. The value of dielectric constant obtained was higher than that of the other PANI based composites reported in the literature. Chapter 7 deals with the fabrication and characterization of diphasic Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF)-CCTO composite. The CCTO crystallites (size varying from nano to micrometers) incorporated in the Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and composites with varying CCTO content were fabricated. The structural, morphological and dielectric properties of the composites were studied using X-ray diffraction, Thermal analysis, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopic (TEM) and Impedance analyzer. The room temperature dielectric constant as high as 95 at 100Hz has been realized for the composite with 0.55 Vol.fraction of CCTO (micro sized crystallites), which has increased to about 190 at 150oC. Whereas, the PVDF/CCTO nanocrystal composite with 0.13Vol.fraction of CCTO has exhibited higher room temperature dielectric constant (90 at 100Hz). The PVDF/CCTO nanocrystal composite was further investigated for the breakdown strength and electric modulus. The breakdown strength plotted against the dielectric constant evidenced an inverse relationship of breakdown voltage with the dielectric constant. The relaxation processes associated with these composites were attributed to the interfacial polarization or Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) effect. Various theoretical models were employed to rationalize the dielectric behavior of these composites. The fabrication and characterization details of optically clear colored glasses in the system (100-x)TeO2-xCaCu3Ti4O12, (x=0.5 to 3 mol%) are reported in Chapter 8. The color varies from olive green to brown as the CaCu3Ti4O12 (CCTO) content increased in TeO2 matrix. The X-ray powder diffraction and differential scanning calorimetric analyses that were carried out on the as-quenched samples confirmed their amorphous and glassy nature respectively. The optical transmittance of the glasses exhibited typical band-pass filter characteristics. The dielectric constant and loss in the 100 Hz-1MHz frequency range were monitored as a function of temperature (323K673K). The dielectric constant and the loss increased as the CCTO content increased in TeO2 at all the frequencies and temperatures under study. Further, the dielectric constant and the loss were found to be frequency independent in the 323-473 K temperature range. The value obtained for the loss at 1MHz was 0.0019 which was typical of low loss materials, and exhibited near constant loss (NCL) contribution to the ac conductivity in the 100Hz-1MHz frequency range. The electrical relaxation was rationalized using the electrical modulus formalism. These glasses are found to be more stable (a feature which may be of considerable interest) as substrates for high frequency circuit elements in conventional semiconductor industries. Thesis ends with summary and conclusions, though each chapter is provided with conclusions and complete list of references.

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