Piezoelectrics: Putting the “Squeeze” on New Materials
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Piezoelectrics: Putting the “Squeeze” on New Materials
Wed, 14/10/2020 - 16:00 to 17:00
Location:
Speaker:
Michelle Dolgos
Affiliation:
University of Calgary
Synopsis:
Due to the environmental impact of lead, there is a considerable focus on the synthesis of lead-free piezoelectric materials. Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) is the current industry standard for piezoelectric ceramics, but has a major disadvantage in that it contains lead, which is increasingly regulated. Our understanding of the high piezoelectric response in PZT is a direct result of the incredibly detailed structural studies that have been performed. Unfortunately, the same level of detail has not been applied to the lead-free counterparts of PZT. While some structural studies have examined both the average structure and local distortions of important lead-free piezoelectrics, there is currently not enough information to form a hypothesis about why PZT outperforms the lead-free alternatives. Several examples linking the structure of a material to its properties will be discussed to highlight the importance of obtaining a comprehensive structural description of lead-free piezoelectric materials in order to make new materials via rational design. This talk will be broad in scope, discussing the background behind piezoelectrics and our group’s attempts to synthesize and characterize new high performing, lead-free piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials
Biography:
Michelle grew up in Allen Park Michigan and received her B.Sc. in Chemistry at Hillsdale College in 2002. She attended the University of Tennessee for her M.Sc. where she worked on silver (II) fluorides and then moved to The Ohio State University (the other OSU) for her PhD in the Woodward Group, where she studied structure-property relationships of complex oxides. She was fortunate to have the opportunity to do a postdoctoral fellowship abroad in the Rosseinsky Group at the University of Liverpool where her main focus was the synthesis and characterization of novel piezoelectric perovskites. Michelle had a second postdoctoral position for a year in the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry where she investigated the structure of nanolaminate thin films. She spent 5 years as faculty at Oregon State University and recently moved to the University of Calgary in November 2018 as a hire for the Global Research Initiative in Sustainable Low Carbon Unconventional Resources. She recently received tenure and is now an Associate Professor in Chemistry. Her widely varied experience has led her to enjoy learning about the structure-property relationships in many different types of materials, but her specific focus is working towards rational design of piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials.