Preparation and electrical properties of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 thick films embedded with ZnO nanowhiskers by a hybrid sol–gel route

Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 thick films embedded with ZnO nanowhiskers (ZnOw–PZT) were successfully prepared on Pt/Cr/SiO2/Si substrates by a hybrid sol–gel method via spin-coating ZnOw suspension and PZT sol. Effects of annealing time and thickness on the corresponding orientation and crystallization of ZnOw–PZT films are investigated. XRD and SEM results show that ZnOw–PZT composite thick films have perovskite structure and high-quality film surface. The composite thick films also exhibit good ferroelectric and dielectric properties, which are close to those of PZT thick films. The remanent polarization, coercive field, dielectric constant and dielectric loss of ZnOw–PZT thick film with thickness of 2 μm are 24 μC/cm2, 177 kV/cm, 223 and 0.06, respectively. Moreover, the longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient is calculated to be 35 pm/V, which is comparable to that of PZT thick film.