Journal of Electroceramics - The Back-to-Basics Tutorial Series: A practical guide to research in electroceramic materials – Announcement

The Back-to-Basics Tutorial Series

Guest Editors

George F. Harrington, University of Bath, UK

In the Back-to-Basics Tutorial Series at the Journal of Electroceramics, we aim to lower the entrance barrier for researchers carrying out their first measurements in a given technique by establishing a series of tutorials, each on a specific experimental technique or method applied to electroceramic materials.

The range of experimental techniques and methods available to researchers working in the field of electroceramics continues to grow and become ever more sophisticated. The proliferation of computer-controlled equipment has dramatically increased the usability of many techniques and allowed features such as self-calibration, automation, and batch sampling to become common. While this can lead to significantly enhanced productivity, researchers are often expected to be proficient in an increasing range of experimental methods. Practical information important to the researcher when beginning to carry out experiments are often hard to extract from the literature.

In this Back-to-Basics Tutorial series, each article will impart a basic understanding and provide practical guidelines for the beginner. We are calling on experts in the field for contributors on select topics containing relevant information for researchers considering carrying out such measurements for the first time. These articles will be as self-contained as possible with references to recent experimental studies kept to a minimum, or saved for a further reading section. Specifically, they will not to be review articles. The inclusion of ‘rules of thumb’, common pitfalls and mistakes, are emphasised. Through the Back-to-Basics series, we hope to collectively gather the community’s experience on experimental research in a collection of highly citable articles that will ultimately serve the needs of as broad as audience as possible.

Call for proposals on topics

Those interested in submitting to this series are encouraged to contact the Series Editor with a proposed topic, brief outline of the structure, and summary of the content of the article. Collaborative work from one research group or multiple groups is welcome.

We encourage proposals on any aspect of electroceramic research:

• Processing (synthesis, sintering, film growth, fabrication of nanostructures, etc.)
• Characterisation (structural and chemical characterisation, microscopy, spectroscopy, etc.)
• Electrical and transport measurements (conductivity, reactivity, ferroic behaviour, etc)
• Modelling methods (empirical, ab initio, finite element, etc.)

Articles available online now:

• X-ray Diffraction of Thin Films (by George Harrington and José Santiso)
• Synthesis of metal oxides (by Clement Nicollet & Alfonso J. Carrillo)
• Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) in ceramics (Zonghao Shen & Sarah Fearn)