DURIP 00 Thermal Analysis and Potentiostatic Instuments for Relaxor Ferroelectric Research

The funds provided by this grant were used to purchase a thermoanalytical balance, with additional thermal analytical capabilities, and a general purpose potentiostatgalvanostat in support of ongoing research on the thermochemistry of ferroelectric relaxors of ceramic system of PbO-MgO-Nb2O5-TiO2. This research is being carried out at Arizona State University, funded by a primary grant awarded by the AFOSR ISSA-99-0013, entitled Grain Growth in Relaxor Ferroelectrics. The equipment includes a high vacuum system capable of maintaining better than 10-8 bar pressure in the measuring chamber. Early trials indicate that the equipment will provide the needed accuracy for the required measurements. An auxiliary differential thermal analyzer DTA was constructed out of individually purchased parts and combined with existing equipment. This will enable testing of new compositions prior to their introduction into the thermal analyzer and allow for a survey of general reaction behavior of the samples. In addition, this procedure was used as a precaution to identify situations of excessive corrosion that might damage the main instrument. A potentiostatgalvanostat was purchased with two purposes in mind. One was to develop a method of analyzing lead content in liquid metal probes embedded in lead oxide samples. This method is being attempted to provide thermochemical data that would corroborate the information obtained from the gravimetric experiments. The second purpose of this equipment was to be used in the development of mictrochemical cells designed to control the lead oxide vapor pressure to which ferroelectric relaxor materials are exposed during synthesis.