Synthesis of lead zirconate titanate(PZT) via the sol-gel process of titanium/zirconium/lead glycolate and lead acetate trihydrate

Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) powder was prepared from metal glycolate of Pb, Zr and Ti having the composition of the morphotropic phase boundary (Zr:Ti = 52:48) via either sol-gel processing or microwave technique, using a mixture of 2.5 M of nitric acid (HNO3) and 2.5 M of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as solvent to obtain pH = 3. The best condition to obtainPZT gel for the conventional heating was at 50C for 5-6 h. XRD patterns show perovskite content of PZT after calcination of PZT precursor in a range of 600-1100C for 1.5 h, and pure perovskite PZT when calcined higher than 800C. For microwave heating, pure perovskite PZT was resulted when heating the mixture of lead/zirconium/titanium glycolte at 150C for 5-25 h followed by calcination at 700-1300 C. XRD patterns show higher intensity, higher crystallinity and higher pervskitee phase formation than the conventional heating. Interestingly, the structure of PZT from both conventional and microwave heating was the tetragonal perovkite structure, if the commercial lead acetate trithydrate was used to replace lead glycolate, the structure of synthesized PZT was the rhombohedral perovskite strcture.