A Li2O-ZnO-SiO2 (LZS) glass system was modified with CuO, and its phase development, microstructure evolution, crystallization kinetics and thermal expansion properties were investigated as a function of heat treatment temperature. As a result of the X-ray diffraction study and microstructure observation, lithium zinc silicate formed as the first crystalline phase with increasing heat treatment temperature. Silica polymorph developed as minor crystalline phase at higher temperatures. From the X-ray diffraction patterns, CuO addition led to a decrease in both the crystallization temperature of lithium zinc silicate phase and the volume fraction of quartz phase. According to the crystallization kinetics, the crystallization activation energy for lithium zinc silicates is almost equal to the diffusion activation energy of Zn2+ in glass, it suggests that the diffusion of network modifier Zn2+ dominates the crystallization of lithium zinc silicates. Additionally, CuO addition caused the transition of Zn2+ from network modifiers to network formers. From the thermal expansion coefficient measurements, two abrupt changes in slope of the thermal expansion curves were observed and attributed to the phase transitions of cristobalite and lithium zinc silicate, respectively. Comparison of the thermal expansion coefficient of two types of glass-ceramics revealed that CuO addition in the LZS system can partly inhibit the formation of cristobalite at high temperatures.

The influences of sintering temperature and holding time on porosity and shrinkage of glass tubes have been studied by optical microscope. It is evident that there exists three stages for the sintering process of glass. At the first stage, both increasing temperature and prolonging the holding time contribute to lowering the porosity and to intensifying the shrinkage greatly. At the second stage, the glass further densifies and the voids among particles become smaller and less. Finally, at the third stage the shrinkage rate almost keeps unchanged to sintering temperature and holding time.

The effect of barium content on phase development, dielectric property and energy storage performance of (Pb0.925−xLa0.05Bax) (Zr0.52Sn0.39Ti0.09)O3 (PLBZST) ceramics synthesized by a solid state reaction method was investigated. X-ray diffraction patterns and scanning electron microscopy micrographs illustrated that the pyrochlore phase was effectively suppressed by the introduction of barium in the (Pb0.925La0.05) (Zr0.52Sn0.39Ti0.09)O3 (PLZST) ceramics. The increase in maximum dielectric constant and the decrease in both transition temperature and switching field with increasing barium content were due to the decrease in the stability of antiferroelectric phase. The energy storage performance of the barium doped PLZST ceramics was studied by measurements of polarization hysteresis loops and discharge curves. The increase of barium content led to the increase of the energy storage density at first and then slight decrease. The study of cyclic charge–discharge showed that barium doped PLZST ceramic capacitor can withstand up to 10,000 cycles with about 8% energy density loss.

Surface metallization of alumina ceramics was prepared by a screen-printing process. The effects of sintering time and substrate etching on the morphology, surface resistivity and mechanical properties of Ag films were studied by scanning electron microscopy-back-scattered electron imaging (SEM-BSI), four-point probe method and tensile test, respectively. The lowest surface resistivity and the highest adhesion strength of Ag films were achieved in the samples sintered at 600 °C for 20 min. Moreover, the Ag films still remained the lowest surface resistivity and the highest adhesion strength after the alumina substrate was etched with 30 wt% sodium hydroxide aqueous solution. Based on the obtained experimental results, a model was proposed for the formation of glass network within the interpenetrating Ag at the interface of Ag film/alumina substrate during the sintering process.

Crystallization of BaO–SrO–TiO2–SiO2–Al2O3-based glass ceramics, prepared by sol–gel process, was evaluated in terms of the effect of sintering temperature on phase evolution and electrical properties. The characterization of the samples was performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies and impedance spectroscopy analysis. The XRD results demonstrate that fresnoite phase starts to crystallize at 700 °C and perovskite phase appears at 900 °C. The glass ceramic samples sintered at high temperatures contained three crystalline phases, including perovskite, feldspar and fresnoite. In addition, SEM observation showed that the average grain size increased and the porosity decreased with increasing sintering temperature. Furthermore, the measurement of impedance spectroscopy suggests that there is a minimum value of the activation energy associated with the sintering temperature of the glass ceramics. The possible explanation of the sintering temperature dependence was discussed.

The effect of calcining temperature on microstructures and electrical properties of modified lead zirconate titanate ceramics has been investigated. Specimens of the modified lead zirconate titanate ceramics, formed with different powders calcined over the temperature range from 800 to 950 °C, were prepared by roll forming process. It is observed that the calcining temperature of the powders alters the grain size, which, in turn, modifies the electrical properties of the ceramics. The results also show that dielectric constant, saturated polarization and piezoelectric coefficient tend to increase with increasing calcining temperature up to 900 °C and then to sharply decrease. The best electrical properties were obtained from the samples with the calcining temperature of 900 °C. At the lower calcining temperatures, a small PbO excess seems to result in PbO-rich grain boundaries and anomalous grain growth during sintering process. In addition, when the calcining temperature was increased to 950 °C, a PbO deficiency appears to take place by breaking up the stoichiometry.

Lanthanum doped tin oxide thin films were prepared on boron-silicon glass substrates by spray pyrolysis. Lanthanum concentration was varied from 0 to 1.0 wt%. The microstructures, sheet resistance and thermal stabilities of the lanthanum doped tin oxide thin films have been investigated in order to determine the role of this dopant on electrical properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) result shows the deposited thin film is mainly rutile SnO2. And atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals that the thin film has smooth surface with no cracks and defects. And it exhibits a typical bimodal grain size distribution with an average grain size of 95 nm. The sheet resistances of the thin films have a complex dependence on the lanthanum concentration. With increasing lanthanum concentration, the sheet resistances of tin oxide thin films were slightly increased and then abruptly decreased. Moreover, when the lanthanum concentration of 0.5 wt% was reached, the specimen exhibits excellent electrical properties. Because of its effectiveness in improving homogeneity of operating surface temperature and thermal stability, lanthanum appears to be an attractive additive for the tin oxide thin films.

A glass with a composition of 22.5SrO–22.5BaO–15Nb2O5–40SiO2 (mol %) was prepared by a melt-quenching method and then heat-treated at 950 °C for different crystallization time. Microstructure observations were carried out using scanning electron microscope and dielectric properties were measured by a LCR meter. The experimental results show that volume fraction of the crystalline phase increased, dielectric constant maximum enhanced, and Curie temperature shifted as the crystallization time is prolonged. The decrease in the Curie temperature for the sample crystallized at 950 °C for 1 h is considered to be caused by the clamping effect from the glass matrix or small compositional fluctuation. Impedance spectroscopy has been employed to study the polarization contributions arising from the glass and crystalline phases in the glass–ceramics for different crystallization time. With the increase in crystallization time, the magnitudes of impedance and modulus as well as the relaxation frequency changed significantly. The activation energy calculated from the relaxation frequency increased for the glass phase due to a denser network structure, while the crystalline phase showed a slight decrease implying there is no change in its polarization mechanism.

Temperature-dependent ferroelectric hysteresis properties of modified lead zirconate titanate ceramics have been investigated in a wide temperature range from 300 to 433 K. It is observed that remnant polarization, saturation polarization, and coercive field are increasing with an increase of the temperature in a low-field region and decreasing in a high-field region. Such behavior is explained by the competition between switching and backswitching mechanisms. A three-stage dependence of the logarithm of the hysteresis loop area on the logarithm of the electric field is identified. The temperature dependence of backswitching properties has been studied. The obtained results indicate that the temperature dependence of the polarization backswitching can be well described by the Arrhenius law. The activation energy for the domain switching determined from the fitting results exhibits decreasing tendency with the increase of the electric field.

The crystallization kinetics in the glass system BaxSr1−xTiO3–Al2O3–SiO2 prepared via the conventional melt-quenching technique has been studied by isothermal method using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). X-ray powder diffraction studies carried out on heat-treated (850–1100 °C) glasses reveal the evolution of BaxSr1−xTiO3 crystalline phase along with a second phase of BaAl2Si2O8. The exponent n in the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami (JMA) equation applied to the isothermal process is in the range of 2.3–2.73. The apparent activation energy for BaxSr1−xTiO3 crystal growth obtained from JMA equation under isothermal condition is 457 kJ mol−1, which is close to the dissociation energy of Si–O bonds. Moreover, there is no remarkably different effect between one-stage and two-stage heat treatment procedures on the microstructures and dielectric properties of barium strontium titanate based glass–ceramics in the present study, according to structure–property analysis.

The spatial switching retardation and heterogeneity of fatigue in lead zirconate titanate ceramics were investigated using quasi-static d33 measurements. The variation of d33 values was measured on the samples with different fatigue states and different reverse switching pulses. Experimental results indicated that the switching retardation exists in the different fatigue stages and increases with increasing cycle number. The d33 measurements exhibit a strongly heterogeneous behavior of fatigue. This fatigue heterogeneity weakened in the seriously fatigued samples.

The sintering and compositional dependencies of dielectric properties in PMW–PT–PNN ceramics have been investigated. The present work confirms that sintering temperature had a large influence on the dielectric properties in this ternary system. It was found that the main causes for the flat temperature dependence are due to shifting and broadening of the dielectric anomaly.