Hydrothermal Formation of Perovskite Lead Zirconate Titanate(PZT) Powders.

Abstract

The formation process of hydrothermally produced PZT powder has been investigated by analysing the intermediate reaction products extracted at different stages during the hydrothermal synthesis process by means of thermal analysis (TGA-DTA), mass spectroscopy (MS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), inductively coupled plasma spectrometry (ICP), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The results show that the formation process of the perovskite PZT powder involves mainly the in-situ transformation of an amorphous zirconia titania gel through the diffusion of PbO into the amorphous zirconium titanate network, which then condenses to the crystalline perovskite PZT structure through the expulsion of water.