Thermoelectric materials permit the direct conversion of temperature differences into electric energy, and vice versa. They are therefore of highest technological interest in applications such as solid state coolers, waste heat recovery, sensors and detectors, and power generators including remote power generation.
Thermoelectric materials are often called "environmentally green," and for good reasons. Not only can they help generate electrical energy from waste gases as they are generated in such processes as home heating, industrial fabrication and automotive motion. In cooling...

The book presents a number of novel ceramic materials that have great potential for advanced technological applications, such as microwave devices, communication instruments and memory devices.
The materials covered include piezoelectric ceramics, zirconia ceramics, doped NiO ceramic nanostructures, BST ceramics (Barium-Strontium-Titanates), manganite ceramics, Ce-doped LaMnO₃ and Sb-doped NKN (Sodium-Potassium-Niobates), as well as materials with ferrite structures, and with multi-ferroic structures
The materials were characterized experimentally by means of XRD...

Due to their unique optical, thermal, catalytic, magnetic and electronic properties, nano-sized semiconductors have a huge potential in a great number of technological applications, ranging from photovoltaics and photocatalysis to biosensors and medicine. In the last couple of decades, the synthesis and characterization of these materials has been of key interest not only to materials scientists but also to researchers working in the field of physics, chemistry, molecular biology and medicine.
The main focus of the present book is the characterization of a number of...