Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) is used for the various piezoelectric devices owing to its high piezoelectric properties. However, lead (Pb), which is contained in PZT, causes various environment contaminations. (K,Na)NbO3 (NKN) is the most well-known candidate for a lead-free composition to replace PZT. A single crystal has excellent piezoelectric-properties and its properties can be changed by changing the orientation direction. It is hard to fabricate a NKN single crystal due to the sodium and potassium. Thus, (Na,K)NbO3-Ba(Cu,Nb)O3 (NKN-BCuN) is chosen to fabricate the single crystal with relative ease. NKNBCuN pellets consist of two parts, yellow single crystals and gray poly-crystals that contain copper. The area that has a large amount of copper particles may melt at low temperature but not the other areas. The liquid phase may be responsible for the abnormal grain growth in NKN-BCuN ceramics. The dielectric constant and tan δ are measured to be 684 and 0.036 at 1 kHz in NKN-BCuN, respectively. The coercive field and remnant polarization are 14 kV/cm and 20 μC/cm2.

Lead free (Ba0.7Ca0.3) TiO3 thick films with nano-sized grains are prepared using an aerosol deposition (AD) method at room temperature. The crystallinity of the AD thick films is enhanced by a post annealing process. Contrary to the sharp phase transition of bulk ceramics that has been reported, AD films show broad phase transition behaviors due to the nanosized grains. The polarization-electric hysteresis loop of annealed AD film shows ferroelectric behaviors. With an increase in annealing temperature, the saturation polarization increases because of an increase in crystallinity. However, the remnant polarization and cohesive field are not affected by the annealing temperature. BCT AD thick films annealed at 700 ℃/2h have an energy density of 1.84 J/cm3 and a charge-discharge efficiency of 69.9%, which is much higher than those of bulk ceramic with the same composition. The higher energy storage properties are likely due to the increase in the breakdown field from a large number of grain boundaries of nano-sized grains.

Research into the development of high strength (1 GPa) and superior formability, such as total elongation (10%), and stretch-flangeability (50%) in hot-rolled steel was conducted with a thermomechanically controlled hot-rolling process. To improve the overall mechanical properties simultaneously, low-carbon steel using precipitation hardening of Ti-Nb-V multimicroalloying elements was employed. And, ideal microstructural characteristics for the realization of balanced mechanical properties were determined using SEM, EBSD, and TEM analyses. The developed steel, 0.06C-2.0Mn-0.5Cr-0.2(Ti + Nb + V), consisted of ferrite as the matrix phase and second phase of granular bainite with fine carbides (20-50 nm) in both phases. The significant factor of the microstructural characteristics that affect stretch-flangeability was found to be the microstructural homogeneity. The microstructural homogeneity, manifest in such characteristics as low localization of plastic strain and internally stored energy, was identified by grain average misorientation method, analyzed by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and hardness deviation between the phases. In summar, a hot-rolled steel having a composition 0.06C-2.0Mn-0.5Cr-0.2(Ti + Nb + V) demonstrated a tensile strength of 998 MPa, a total elongation of 19%, and a hole expansion ratio of 65%. The most important factors to satisfy the mechanical property were the presence of fine carbides and the microstructural homogeneity, which provided low hardness deviation between the phases.