The Effect of Isostatic Pressing on the Dielectric Properties of Screen Printed Ba\u3csub\u3e0.5\u3c/sub\u3eSr\u3csub\u3e0.5\u3c/sub\u3eTiO\u3csub\u3e3\u3c/sub\u3e Thick Films

Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thick films with B2O3–Li2O glass sintering aid were prepared by the screen printing method on Al2O3 substrates. A 200 MPa isostatic pressure was applied to the films before sintering. After being sintered at 950∘C, lower porosity and denser microstructure was obtained compared with the films without isostatic pressing. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss were 238 and 0.0028, respectively. A tunability of 61.7% was obtained for the isostatic pressed films, a 27.8% enhancement compared to unpressurized films. These results suggest that isostatic pressing is an effective way to prepare dielectric thick films with dense microstructure, low dielectric loss, and high tunability

Development and validation of a preoperative MRI-based radiomics nomogram to predict progression-free survival in patients with clival chordomas

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to establish and validate a MRI-based radiomics nomogram to predict progression-free survival (PFS) of clival chordoma.MethodsA total of 174 patients were enrolled in the study (train cohort: 121 cases, test cohort: 53 cases). Radiomic features were extracted from multiparametric MRIs. Intraclass correlation coefficient analysis and a Lasso and Elastic-Net regularized generalized linear model were used for feature selection. Then, a nomogram was established via univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis in the train cohort. The performance of this nomogram was assessed by area under curve (AUC) and calibration curve.ResultsA total of 3318 radiomic features were extracted from each patient, of which 2563 radiomic features were stable features. After feature selection, seven radiomic features were selected. Cox regression analysis revealed that 2 clinical factors (degree of resection, and presence or absence of primary chordoma) and 4 radiomic features were independent prognostic factors. The AUC of the established nomogram was 0.747, 0.807, and 0.904 for PFS prediction at 1, 3, and 5 years in the train cohort, respectively, compared with 0.582, 0.852, and 0.914 in the test cohort. Calibration and risk score stratified survival curves were satisfactory in the train and test cohort.ConclusionsThe presented nomogram demonstrated a favorable predictive accuracy of PFS, which provided a novel tool to predict prognosis and risk stratification. Our results suggest that radiomic analysis can effectively help neurosurgeons perform individualized evaluations of patients with clival chordomas

Resistive switching characteristics of Pt/TaOx/HfNx structure and its performance improvement

The refractory transition metal nitride (TMN) film Hafnium nitride (HfNx) was successfully prepared on silicon-based substrates as bottom electrodes for resistive random access memory (RRAM) cells in Pt (top)/metal oxide/ HfNx (bottom) sandwich structure. The reproducible resistive switching (RS) characteristics of the memory cells were studied systematically for RRAM applications. The advantages of adopting HfNx instead of Pt as bottom electrode material were demonstrated, including the improvement of the low resistive state value, the RS endurance and the uniformity of RS parameters. The composition and chemical bonding states of the prepared HfNx was analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique. The nitrogen content in the HfNx and the Gibbs free energy of the corresponding metal oxide formation has great influences on the RS properties. The oxygen reservoir ability and diffusion barrier effect of the HfNx play a key role in the RS performance improvement of the RRAM devices

Recent progress of ecofriendly perovskite-type dielectric ceramics for energy storage applications

Increasing concern has been focused on the search for ecofriendly dielectric ceramics to meet the extensive demands of pulsed capacitors. Due to the advantages of high-energy storage density, efficiency, and excellent temperature stability, optimization of energy storage performance in dielectric ceramics has been a goal in the past decades. This review summarizes the recently reported progress in energy storage properties of typical perovskite-type lead-free ceramics. The advantages and shortcomings in the various kinds of ceramics are discussed. Finally, future prospects are presented to provide some guidelines for the exploration of new materials

A comprehensive review on the progress of lead zirconate-based antiferroelectric materials

Lead zirconate (PbZrO3 or PZ)-based antiferroelectric (AFE) materials, as a group of important electronic materials, have attracted increasing attention for their potential applications in high energy storage capacitors, micro-actuators, pyroelectric security sensors, cooling devices, and pulsed power generators and so on, because of their novel external electric field-induced phase switching behavior between AFE state and ferroelectric (FE) state. The performances of AFE materials are strongly dependent on the phase transformation process, which are mainly determined by the constitutions and the external field. For AFE thin/thick films, the electrical properties are also strongly dependent on their thickness, crystal orientation and the characteristics of electrode materials. Accordingly, various strategies have been employed to tailor the phase transformation behavior of AFE materials in order to improve their performances. Due to their relatively poor electrical strength (low breakdown fields), most PZ-based orthorhombic AFE ceramics are broken down before a critical switching field can be applied. As a consequence, the electric-field-induced transition between AFE and FE phase of only those AFE bulk ceramics, with compositions within tetragonal region near the AFE/FE morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), can be realized experimentally at room temperature. AFE materials with such compositions include (Pb,A)ZrO3 (A = Ba, Sr), (Pb1−3/2xLax)(Zr1−yTiy)O3 (PLZT x/(1−y)/y), (Pb0.97La0.02)(Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 (PLZST) and Pb0.99(Zr,Sn,Ti)0.98Nb0.02O3 (PNZST). As compared to bulk ceramics, AFE thin and thick films always display better electric-field endurance ability. Consequently, room temperature electric-field-induced AFE–FE phase transition could be observed in the AFE thin/thick films with orthorhombic structures. Moreover, AFE films are more easily integrated with silicon technologies. Therefore, AFE thin/thick films have been a subject of numerous researches. This review serves to summarize the recent progress of PZ-based AFE materials, focusing on the external field (electric field, hydrostatic pressure and temperature) dependences of the AFE–FE phase transition, with a specific attention to the performances of AFE films for various potential applications, such as high energy storage, electric field induced strains, pyroelectric effect and electrocaloric effect.Accepted versio

Dielectric Properties and Energy Storage Densities of Poly(vinylidenefluoride) Nanocomposite with Surface Hydroxylated Cube Shaped Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 Nanoparticles

Ceramic-polymer nanocomposites, consisting of surface hydroxylated cube-shaped Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 nanoparticles (BST–NPs) as fillers and poly(vinylidenefluoride) (PVDF) as matrix, have been fabricated by using a solution casting method. The nanocomposites exhibited increased dielectric constant and improved breakdown strength. Dielectric constants of the nanocomposite with surface hydroxylated BST–NPs (BST–NPs–OH) were higher as compared with those of their untreated BST–NPs composites. The sample with 40 vol % BST–NPs–OH had a dielectric constant of 36 (1 kHz). Different theoretical models have been employed to predict the dielectric constants of the nanocomposites, in order to compare with the experimental data. The BST–NPs–OH/PVDF composites also exhibited higher breakdown strength than their BST–NP/PVDF counterparts. A maximal energy density of 3.9 J/cm3 was achieved in the composite with 5 vol % BST–NPs–OH. This hydroxylation strategy could be used as a reference to develop ceramic-polymer composite materials with enhanced dielectric properties and energy storage densities.Published versio

Mechanism of Nano-Structuring Manipulation of the Crystallization Temperature of Superlattice-like [Ge8Sb92/Ge]3 Phase-Change Films

Superlattice-like (SLL) phase-change film is considered to be a promising phase-change material because it provides more controllabilities for the optimization of multiple performances of phase-change films. However, the mechanism by which SLL structure affects the properties of phase-change films is not well-understood. Here, four SLL phase-change films [Ge8Sb92(15 nm)/Ge (x nm)]3 with different x are fabricated. Their behaviors of crystallization are investigated by measuring sheet resistance and coherent phonon spectroscopy, which show that the crystallization temperature (TC) of these films increases anomalously with x, rather than decreases as the interfacial effects model predicted. A new stress effect is proposed to explain the anomalous increase in TC with x. Raman spectroscopy reveals that Raman shifts of all phonon modes in SLL films deviate from their respective standard Raman shifts in stress-free crystalline films, confirming the presence of stress in SLL films. It is also shown that tensile and compressive stresses exist in Ge and Ge8Sb92 layers, respectively, which agrees with the lattice mismatch between the Ge and Ge8Sb92 constituent layers. It is also found that the stress reduces with increasing x. Such a thickness dependence of stress can be used to explain the increase in crystallization temperature of four SLL films with x according to stress-enhanced crystallization. Our results reveal a new mechanism to affect the crystallization behaviors of SLL phase-change films besides interfacial effect. Stress and interfacial effects actually coexist and compete in SLL films, which can be used to explain the reported anomalous change in crystallization temperature with the film thickness and cycle number of periods in SLL phase-change films

Simultaneously high-energy storage density and responsivity in quasi-hysteresis-free Mn-doped Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-BaTiO3-(Sr0.7Bi0.2□0.1)TiO3 ergodic relaxor ceramics

High-energy storage density, responsivity and efficiency, i.e. WR = 1.07 J/cm3, ξ = 119 J/(kV m2) and η = 92%, were simultaneously obtained in Mn-doped 0.62Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-0.06BaTiO3-0.32(Sr0.7Bi0.2□0.1)TiO3 ergodic relaxor ceramics. Appropriate Mn doping was beneficial to enhance breakdown field strength. Moreover, temperature and different atmosphere-dependent impedance spectroscopy results indicated that oxygen vacancies were the conductivity mechanism for all samples. The valence state of Mn together with the conjugation between Mn ion and oxygen vacancies was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectra and electric paramagnetic resonance. The above results indicate that quasi-hysteresis-free loops with high-energy storage performances can be obtained by the induced defect complex. IMPACT STATEMENT High-energy storage density WR = 1.07 J/cm3, responsivity ξ = 119 J/(kV m2) and efficiency η = 92% were simultaneously obtained in quasi-hysteresis-free ceramics by introducing defect complex