NMR spectroscopy of electroceramics – Applications to lead-free perovskite oxides

Understanding about the local structure plays an increasing role for the discovery of structure-property relations in electroceramics. Despite that, characterization techniques dedicated to the local structure are still not widespread in the electroceramics community. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) has the potential to close this gap, as particularly sensitive to minute distortions and well-suited for the structural analysis of partially disordered materials, such as solid-solutions. This review aims at an introduction of this technique tailored to the materials scientist. Following a brief description of the base concepts, its capabilities are demonstrated by a series of tangible examples from local structural questions pertinent to materials based on three classes of lead-free perovskites, namely BaTiO₃, NaNbO₃ and Na_1/2Bi_1/2TiO₃. Beyond its application to lead-free perovskite oxides, the concepts illustrated here are of broad interest for further oxides and materials in general.