PIEZO2017: Electroceramics for End Users IX

This virtual special issue in Advances in Applied Ceramics comprises selected papers from the conference Piezo2017:Electroceramics for End Users IX , that took place in Cercedilla (Madrid, Spain) on 19-22 February, 2017 at the “Lucas Olazabal” Forestry Residence of the “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)”. There were 80 participants from academia and industry,  from France, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Denmark, Slovenia, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Portugal, USA, Latvia, Israel and Belgium. The conference was organized by the European Institute of Piezoelectric Materials and Devices (Piezoinstitute), the “Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM).CSIC” and the School of Telecommunications Systems and Engineering (ETSIST) of the UPM. The conference was also made possible through the support of the companies Meggitt Sensing Systems (DK) and Aixacct Systems (DE).

The sessions covered studies on piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics, relaxors and tunable materials, applications, new processing techniques, lead-free ceramics and other sustainable materials, modeling and advanced characterization. The invited talks were given by N. Setter (EPFL, CH) - who spoke in homage to Prof. L. E. Cross, from The Pennsylvania State University (USA) who passed away on December 2016 -  F. Montero de Espinosa (ITEFI-CSIC, ES), M.E. Villafuerte-Castrejón (UNAM, MX) and D. C. Sinclair (Sheffield Univ., UK). The scientific program consisted of 32 oral and 20 poster presentations. PIEZO2017 provided an opportunity to discuss challenges and future trends in this area. The conference was of high scientific level and technical quality.

After a peer-review process according to the rules of Advances in Applied Ceramics journal, 10 invited articles were accepted for publication in this issue. These works give a wide coverage of the topics presented in the conference from materials preparation (“Ba_0.9Ca_0.1TiO₃: microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis and piezoelectric properties”) to properties (“Structural and functional characterisation of KNNS-BNKZ lead-free piezoceramics”, “Elasto-optic behavior in epitaxial films of perovskite oxide ferroelectrics”, “The representation of coupling interactions in the material properties open database (MPOD)” and “Methodology to evaluate variations in piezoelectric constants after aging process”) and device design and modeling (“Design of piston-like piezoelectric transducers based on a phononic crystal”, “Parametric study of a thin piezoelectric cantilever for energy harvesting applications” ,“Virtual instrument to obtain electrical models of piezoelectric elements used in energy harvesting”, “Modelling of the mechanical response of piezoelectric structures from millimeter to micrometer” and “Effects of the LGT crystal quality on the resonance frequency stability of bulk acoustic waves resonators”) of piezoelectrics and related materials.

We hope that it will provide a good overview of current research in the field of piezoelectric materials and devices and that it will be useful for those involved in this subject as well as for newcomers. We would like to express our gratitude to the authors who have contributed to this issue. We also gratefully acknowledge the hard work of the referees in providing critical reviews. We thank Michael Reece, Editor of Advances in Applied Ceramics, Sophie Donnelly and Rose Worrell, Editorial Assistants for their efficient coordination of the editorial work.

We hope you enjoy reading these works with free access via this page only until December 31, 2019, and encourage you to participate in the future conference in this series, PIEZO2019, to be held at Krkonoše, Czech Republic next January 2019.

L. Pardo, A.M. González, J.F. Bartolomé and P.Ochoa.