The Avalokitesvara Statues in Dazu, Chongqing, are famous for their momentum of grand, broad and magnificent spectacular views. As painted and gilded statues carved on the cliff, the structure and material's making-ups of the Avalokitesvara Statues are very complex, which include sandstone substrate, mortar layers, golden plastic paints, gold foils, and paintings. These materials are usually overlapped with each other and synergistically make contributions to the degradation process of the Avalokitesvara Statues, which accelerate obviously with rapid industry development recently. This paper presents comprehensive and detailed materials characterization and analysis for the Avalokitesvara Statues using X-ray detection, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, metallographic microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy.

The dependence of structure and piezoelectric response d33 on individual excess A-site K or Na in K0.5Na0.5NbO3 based lead-free piezoceramics is reported. The coexistence of orthorhombic, tetragonal, and monoclinic phases at room temperature is observed in the investigated 0.94K0.5+xNa0.5NbO3–0.06LiNbO3 and 0.94K0.5Na0.5+yNbO3–0.06LiNbO3 ceramics (x, y = 0–0.025). The weight ratio of three phases, orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition temperature, and d33 value are highly sensitive to A-site K or Na nonstoichiometry. A-site Na nonstiochiometry plays a dominant role in enhancing the electrical properties of KNN by significantly reducing the weight ratio percentage of monoclinic phase and shifting the orthorhombic-tetragonal phase transition temperature to lower temperatures.

Novel monoclinic Bi2O3-xRE2O3-yMoO3 (RE=Pr, Nd, Sm, and Yb) based low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) systems with high sintering density and low microwave dielectric loss are synthesized by conventional solid state reaction technique. The structure and dielectric properties of Bi2O3-xRE2O3-yMoO3 ceramics are investigated. Dense BiNdMoO6 ceramics sintered at 900 °C for 8 h in air have a low dielectric constant εr=~7.5, a high quality factor Q×f=~ 24, 800 GHz at 7.0 GHz, and τf=~−16 ppm/̊C. Especially, good chemical compatibility of BiNdMoO6 with Ag electrodes is represented as well. In contrast, BiSmMoO6 ceramics sintered at 1000 °C for 8 h show enhanced Q×f=~43, 700 GHz at 7.8 GHz with εr=~8.5 and τf=~−27 ppm/°C. Bi2O3-xRE2O3-yMoO3 (RE=Pr, Nd, Sm, and Yb) based ceramics could be considered as promising microwave ceramics for LTCC applications.