De­fec­ti­ve metal oxi­des as the next ge­nera­ti­on of lead-​free pie­zo­electrics for ul­tra­so­nic ac­tua­tors - DE­ME­TRA

Pro­ject sum­ma­ry

Ra­tio­na­le/Needs: Elec­tro­me­cha­ni­cal smart ma­te­ri­als are like mus­cles that chan­ge their size and exert for­ces under electri­cal sti­mu­li. They are in sen­sors and me­di­cal de­vices and are es­sen­ti­al for fu­ture tech­no­lo­gies. De­spi­te their im­por­tance, the best-​performing ma­te­ri­al is an old tech­no­lo­gy: lead-​based pie­zo­electrics, which is high­ly toxic. A new class of ma­te­ri­als, non-​classical elec­trostric­tors, have been dis­co­ver­ed. These out­per­form lead-​based pie­zo­electrics and are bio­com­pa­ti­ble and in­ex­pen­si­ve. How­e­ver, we still need to as­sess them for "fast" ul­tra­sounds. Ob­jec­ti­ves #1: Un­der­stand how non-​classical elec­trostric­tors work at the ato­mic level. #2: Op­ti­mi­se their pro­per­ties in the ul­tra­sound to prove their in­dus­tri­al com­pe­ti­ti­ve­n­ess. Po­ten­ti­al ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons Tar­get ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons are echo-​scan, lab-​on-chip, ad­ap­ti­ve len­ses and ul­tra­so­nic ma­ni­pu­la­tors. Im­pact and po­ten­ti­al be­ne­fits We will im­pact so­cie­ty th­rough in­dus­tri­al in­no­va­ti­on and en­vi­ron­men­tal sus­tai­na­bi­li­ty.