New synthesis route for lead zirconate titanate powder

Phase pure lead zirconate titanate (PZT) powder was produced via a new aqueous coprecipitation method. A suite of characterization techniques, including FTIR, Raman, X-ray diffraction, SEM as well as nitrogen sorption were employed to investigate the structural evolution of the synthesized and calcined powder. The dried precipitate formed in aqueous phase yielded approximately 80 wt% final product after calcination. The PZT perovskite structure was obtained after calcination at 550 °C for 3 h. Milling of the calcined powder reduced the mean particle size from approximately 10 µm to 2 µm. With increasing calcination temperature from 550 °C to 700 °C, both surface area and pore volume decreased while pore size increased from 3.4 nm to 9.8 nm. The bulk density of pelletized samples increased from 4.83 to 7.57 g/cm3 with increasing sintering temperature from 800 °C to 1200 °C. Powder processing using this aqueous route is simple and reproducible leading to a method that is readily scalable for industrial applications.