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Chemistry Forums for Students => Inorganic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: everydaygame on October 15, 2008, 10:20:42 AM

Title: Ferroelectric?
Post by: everydaygame on October 15, 2008, 10:20:42 AM

Hi

Bit confused by ferroelectric properties of ionic lattices. I understand that the ferroelectric effect is a result of polarisation giving two differnet configuration in the absence of an electric field. What i dont get is why the body centred cations displace to give a spontaneous polarisation in  the unit cell and hence give this effect, is this due to inherent defects or is this just how the lattice structure forms the unit cell witha  net dipole?