Apparent vanishing of ferroelectricity in nanostructured BiScO3–PbTiO3

Nanostructured ceramics of high-temperature piezoelectric 0.375BiScO3--0.625PbTiO3 were prepared by spark plasma sintering of nanocrystalline powders obtained by mechanosynthesis. The macroscopic electrical properties were characterized on dense ceramics with decreasing average grain size down to 28...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2010-07, Vol.43 (28), p.285401-285401
Main Authors: Amorín, H, Jiménez, R, Ricote, J, Hungría, T, Castro, A, Algueró, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ceramics
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Dielectrics, piezoelectrics, and ferroelectrics and their properties
Domain structure
hysteresis
Electric fields
Exact sciences and technology
Ferroelectric materials
Ferroelectricity
Ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity
Grain boundaries
Grain size
Nanocomposites
Nanostructure
Phase transitions and curie point
Physics
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Summary:Nanostructured ceramics of high-temperature piezoelectric 0.375BiScO3--0.625PbTiO3 were prepared by spark plasma sintering of nanocrystalline powders obtained by mechanosynthesis. The macroscopic electrical properties were characterized on dense ceramics with decreasing average grain size down to 28 nm. Results indicate that the electric field is screened by the electrically insulating grain boundaries at the nanoscale, which needs to be considered when discussing size effects in ferroelectric polycrystalline materials. Moreover, the requirement of increasingly large electric fields to achieve a given polarization with the decrease in the grain size, together with the depletion of the dielectric anomaly associated with the ferroelectric transition until its disappearance, seems to be the result of grain boundary effects.
ISSN:0022-3727
1361-6463
DOI:10.1088/0022-3727/43/28/285401