1. Giant Performance in Lead-Free Piezoelectric Dwight Viehland, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, DMR 0806592 Outcome: Researchers at Virginia Tech have successfully synthesized grain-oriented lead-free polycrystalline Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3-BaTiO3 (NBT-BT) ceramics exhibiting the highest reported piezoelectric coefficient for this system (Fig. 1a and 1b). Impact: Grain-oriented lead-free NBT-BT ceramics with giant piezoelectric response (d33~322 pC/N) open the possibility of replacing lead-based material in actuator applications. Explanation: Environmental restrictions in many parts of the world are demanding the elimination of lead from all consumer electronics. World-wide restrictions are being imposed by government agencies to get rid of lead. This has prompted global investigations on finding lead – free piezoelectric compositions with high electromechanical coupling. However, most of the attempts reported in literature have not been successful in providing a suitable lead-free alternative. We demonstrate that by tuning the grain orientation (Fig. 1b), domain size (nanodomains, Fig. 2a) and the coherency of interfaces (Fig. 2b), giant piezoelectric response can be obtained. Fig. 1. (a) d33 versus various dopants. (b) d33 versus Lotgering factor (degree of texturing). Fig. 2(a) PFM phase image depicting nano domains in textured NBT-BT. (b) Lattice fringes near the interface of the seed and textured grain.