9319809 Komarneni Research will be carried out to develop a fundamental understanding of new nanocomposite materials having novel dielectric properties. We will employ a compositional nanocomposite strategy using two or more sols of the barium, strontium, lead titanates, as well as lithium and lead niobates to radically change the sintering behavior and properties compared to materials made from single phase gels derived from alkoxides, and traditional oxide mixes. In addition to these processing innovations, we propose to make new materials with potentially different properties focusing on three classes of applications: relaxor ferroelectrics with high permittivity and electrostrictive coefficients; nanocomposites with conducting grains and insulating boundaries; and product-property nanocomposites. Encapsulation of nanoparticles in a second solution before hydrolysis will be used to make composites, and sol-gel spin coating will be used to make superlattice structures with different ferroelectric materials. %%% Electroceramic materials will be prepared using a new processing approach which involves very fine particles that react to form the desired material faster and at considerably lower temperature than with other processing methods. New materials with novel properties will be made by designing mixtures on a very small scale. This strategy of making ferroelectric materials is expected to result in enhanced densification at lower sintering temperatures which can lead to considerable energy savings for the capacitor industry. New materials with novel properties that are expected to result from this research may lead to new applications. An important feature of the program is the training of graduate and undergraduate students in a fundamentally and technologically significant area of materials and processing research. ***
