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The polycrystalline sample of a new tungsten bronze ferroelectric vanadate, Li2Pb2La2W2Ti4V4O30, was prepared at a relatively low temperature using a mixed-oxide technique. The formation of the material under the reported conditions has been confirmed by an X-ray diffraction technique. A preliminary structural analysis exhibits orthorhombic crystal structure of the material at room temperature. Studies of dielectric properties (ϵ, tanδ) of the above compound as a function of temperature (273–600K) at frequencies 10, 100, 1000 KHz exhibits a ferroelectric phase transition of diffuse type. The electrical properties of the material have been studied using ac impedance spectroscopy technique. Detailed studies of impedance and related parameters exhibit that the electrical properties of the material are strongly dependent on temperature, and bear a good correlation with its microstructures. The temperature dependence of electrical relaxation phenomenon in the materials has been observed. The bulk resistance, evaluated from complex impedance spectra, is found to decrease with rise in temperature, exhibiting a typical negative temperature co-efficient of resistance (NTCR) –type behavior similar to that of semiconductors. A small contribution of grain boundary effect was also observed. The complex electric modulus analysis indicates the possibility of hopping conduction mechanism in the system with non-exponential type of conductivity relaxation. The ac conductivity spectra exhibit a typical signature of an ionic conducting system, and are found to obey Jonscher's universal power law. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Al2O3–ZrO2 composites were sintered using low cost extended arc thermal plasma reactor and conventional heating. Composites prepared in a wide range of composition were studied in terms of their density, shrinkage, hardness, structure, microstructure and dielectric response. Experimental parameter such as sintering time, sintering temperature and plasma power were optimized to achieve higher sintered end product. Highly dense sintered products were obtained by plasma heating route within short sintering time compared with conventional sintered method. Interesting development pertaining to structure and phase evolution, structure and dielectric response are analyzed. It is found that compositional variation in this composite produces structural phase separation at different sintering conditions, which is more in plasma heating product than conventional heated product. Plasma sintered product always shows less dielectric constant as compared to conventional sintered sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]