Halasyamani, P. Shiv2014-03-132014-03-13December 22012-12http://hdl.handle.net/10657/559Functional polar oxide materials occupy a very crucial position in modern technology. The polar oxide materials exhibit many technologically important properties like second-harmonic generation, piezoelectricity, pyroelectricity, and possibly ferroelectricity caused by their polar crystal structure. Though the structure-property relationship in polar oxide materials is well studied, the understanding of how the structural building units are joined to form a new polar crystal structure has been less sufficient. A synthetic approach using cations susceptible to second-order Jahn Teller (SOJT) distortion like octahedrally coordinated d0 cations (Ti4+, V5+, Mo6+) and lone-pair cations (Sn2+, Sb3+, Te4+) is successful in preparing new polar oxide materials. We were successful in preparing several new polar oxide materials, Zn2(MoO4)(AO3) (A = Se4+, Te4+) (P21), BiO(IO3) (Pca21), Li6(Mo2O5)3(SeO3)6 (Pmn21), Na2(WO3)3(SeO3)•2H2O (P31c), and Na6(W6O19)(SeO3)2 (C2) and other centrosymmetric materials, Li2(MO4)(TeO3)2 (M = Mo6+, W6+) (P21/n). In this dissertation, we report the syntheses, crystal structures, physical properties, functional properties, and understanding of the structure-property relationship of the reported oxide materials.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).Non-centrosymmetricPolarChemistry, InorganicSolid state chemistry2014-03-13Thesisborn digital