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The route to resource-efficient novel materials

Combining the efforts of physicists, materials scientists, economists and resource-strategy researchers opens up an interdisciplinary route enabling the substitution of rare elements by more abundant ones, serving as a guideline for the development of novel materials.

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Figure 1: Comparison of several compounds including CDCs regarding their suitability as capacitors: CDC materials La15/8Sr1/8NiO4 (ref. 12) and CaCu3Ti4O12 (refs 4,6), ferroelectrics BaTiO3 (ref. 14) and barium-doped lead zirconate titanate (PBZT)13, ferroelectric SrTiO3:DyScO3 multilayers16, and the so-called relaxor ferroelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–PbTiO3 (PMN:PT)15.
Figure 2: World map of mineral deposits and reserves of TiO2 and BaSO4.
Figure 3: Time-development prospects of three CDC materials from the perspectives of materials science, resource strategy and resource management, including an extrapolation up to the year 2015.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft via the TRR80.

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Krohns, S., Lunkenheimer, P., Meissner, S. et al. The route to resource-efficient novel materials. Nature Mater 10, 899–901 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3180

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