Research: Ceramics

Research Summary and Principle Aims

Ceramics have always been a major part of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering's research portfolio; and interest in the field remains as strong today as it has ever done. Here in Sheffield our research has broadened to cover functional ceramics as well as the more traditional areas of refractories and structural ceramics.

View the Ceramics and Composites Laboratory

Selected Projects

• Advanced ceramics, composites and polymers (EPSRC: £6,440,303)
• Next generation carbon-containing refactory composites (EPSRC: £203,446)
• Structure-composition-property relationships in complex ACu₃B₄O₁₂ perovskites (EPSRC: £ 333,700)
• Nanostructure in functional ceramics (EPSRC: £ 610,719)
• NSF/EPRSC joint proposal on the effect of constraint and thickness on octahedral tilt transitions in perovskite structured thin films (EPSRC: £ 364,633)
• Stoichiometry, stability and phase equilibria of CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂ (CCTO) high permittivity ceramics (EPSRC: £81,227)
• PbO-free piezo-electro ceramics (KTP: £191,756)
• Design and development of a new antenna core using glass and related ceramic technologies (KTP: £160,915)

Key publications

• Woodward D.I., Reaney I.M., Yang G.Y., et al. (2004). Vacancy ordering in reduced barium titanate, Appl. Phys. Lett., 84(23), 4650-4652.
• Wise P.L., Reaney I.M., Lee W.E., et al. (2002). Tunability of tau(f) in perovskites and related compounds, J. Mater. Res., 17(8), 2033-2040.
• A.R. West, T.B. Adams, F.D. Morrison and D.C. Sinclair. (2004). Novel high capacitance materials:- BaTiO₃:La and CaCu₃Ti₄O₁₂, J Eur. Ceram. Soc., 24, 1439-1448.
• C.L. McLaren, C.A. Kirk, M. Poisot, M. Castellanos and A.R. West. (2004). Li⁺ ion conductivity in rock salt-structured nickel-doped Li₃NbO₄, Dalton Trans., 3042-3047.
• E.J. Abram, D.C. Sinclair and A.R. West. (2003). A strategy for multi-formalism analysis of impedance spectroscopy data of electroceramics, Journal of Electroceramics, 10, 165-178.
• G.M. Keith, C.A. Kirk, V. Sarma, N.Mc. Alford, E.J. Cussen, M.J. Rosseinsky and D.C. Sinclair. (2004). Synthesis, crystal structure and electrical characterisation of Ba(Mn_1/2Ti_1/2)O₃: a high permittivity 12R-type hexagonal perovskite, Chemistry of Materials, 16(10), 2007-2015.
• S. Zhang, W.E. Lee, B. Zhu and N. Li. (2005). Improving hydration resistance of al powder for carbon containing castables using inorganic-organic hybrid coatings, Advances in Applied Ceramics, 104, 79-82.

People

• Professor Ian Reaney, Professor in Ceramics, specialises in the use of analytical and high resolution transmission electron microscopy to study the structure and microstructure of electroceramics.
• Professor Derek Sinclair, Professor in Materials Chemistry, specialises in the synthesis and characterisation of oxide-based electroceramics.
• Professor Tony West, Professor of Electroceramics and Solid State Chemistry, his research is a blend of the Chemistry, Physics and Engineering of Inorganic Materials, especially oxides, which focuses on materials with interesting and/or useful electrical properties, especially ionic conductors, mixed ionic/electronic conductors, semiconductors, ferro- and di-electrics.
• Dr Shaowei Zhang, EPSRC Advanced Fellow and Lecturer Elect, specialises in the processing, microstructures and properties of high temperature ceramics/refractories.

Associated Centres

Ceramics and Composites Laboratory