Effects of sintering behavior on microstructure and piezoelectric properties of porous PZT ceramics

Porous lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics with interconnected pores were fabricated by using a novel tert-butyl alcohol (TBA)-based gel-casting method. The resultant samples were sintered at different temperatures and subsequently characterized in terms of both microstructure and piezoelectric properties to study effects of sintering behavior. Both microstructure and piezoelectric properties exhibited obvious dependence on sintering temperature. It was noted that porosity and grain size played dominant roles in determining the magnitudes of dielectric constant (ɛ) and piezoelectric constant d33, respectively. With the increase of sintering temperature, the porosity declined and the grain size increased which exerted opposite influences on piezoelectric properties mainly via ɛ and d33. Since anti-interference ability of the ceramic correlates linearly with ɛ, it is possible to adjust sintering temperature to tailor porosity and pore morphology in order to achieve optimum piezoelectric properties as well as relatively high anti-interference ability.