Guests of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at TU Darmstadt

My field of research is fascinating. To laymen I would explain it in the following comprehensible manner:

Piezoelectric materials have fantastic properties: squeeze them and they generate an electrical field. And vice-versa, they contract or expand when jolted with an electrical pulse. Lead oxide based ferroelectric materials such as lead zirconate titanate are the most widely used materials for electronic devices, because of their excellent piezoelectric properties. However, the environmental and health hazards of lead are well-known, and recycling and disposal of devices containing lead-based piezoelectric materials is of great concern, especially those used in consumer products such as cars, sound systems, and medical devices. Thus, interest is high for development of lead-free piezoelectric materials that are biocompatible and environmentally friendly.

My most important success in research to date is:

BNT based thick films have been prepared using screen printing method. The correlations between microstructures and electrical properties have been systematically investigated, including the effects of printing and sintering process, acceptor and donor doping as well as interfacial layer between electrode and films. Moreover, behaviours and mechanisms of the dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric responses for NKBT films under applied ac/dc electrical field at a wide range of frequencies and temperatures are also studies.

I’ve chosen the TU Darmstadt because of… Professor Jürgen Rödel’s group is a world-leader not only in research of lead-free piezoceramics but also in the field of fatigue for piezoceramics.

If I were a student today, I would attend a German course for one year, the German language is very important to my study, research and daily life.

The perfect balance to a stressful working day is go to travel with my family.

With the help of my host in Darmstadt I would like to fabricate high-performance BNT-based multilayer actuators which have potential industrial applications as new generation lead-free electronic devices.