The Rapid Discovery of Novel Dielectric and Magnetic Ceramics, and Structure-Property Relationships, through Combinatorial High Throughput Methods

Combinatorial Materials Science is the rapid synthesis and analysis of large numbers of compositions in parallel, created through many combinations of a small number of starting materials. The various samples are synthesised in a single piece, or on a single substrate, called a “library”. To date, most Materials Science combinatorial high throughput methods use deposited thin films. However, for many ceramic interconnect applications, bulk or thick film ceramics are required. It could also be argued that bulk properties are much more relevant than those of thin films when constructing large structure-property data bases, for data mining and prediction of novel compositions. Strain and skin effects in thin films often cause major discrepancies, e.g. ferroelectric measurements, changes in lattice parameters. Also, many thin films are epitaxial or single crystal, and hence have no grain boundaries, which can have a large effect on properties. At Aveiro we are developing novel methods of processing and analysing multiple combinatorial high throughput thick film or bulk ceramic libraries, as a series of compositional and functional steps. These can be produced with or without a supporting substrate. As well as composition, effects of variation in processing parameters such as firing temperature, time, atmosphere, substrate / electrode reactions, etc. can also be investigated. The structure-property relationships of dielectric, magnetic, and particularly magnetoelectric / multiferroic ceramics, are highly complex and difficult to predict, and therefore combinatorial searching could be an essential tool. As well as accelerating discovery, the amount of quantitative data produced will enable accurate predictions for multifunctional materials.