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Effect of sol-gel preparation method on particle morphology in pure and nanocomposite PZT thin films

Double-scale composite lead zirconate titanate Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (PZT) thin films of 360 nm thickness were prepared by a modified composite sol-gel method. PZT films were deposited from both the pure sol and the composite suspension on Pt/Al 2 O 3 substrates by the spin-coating method and were...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical papers 2011-10, Vol.65 (5), p.682-690
Main Authors: Bruncková, Helena, Medvecký, Ľubomír, Hvizdoš, Pavol
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Double-scale composite lead zirconate titanate Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 (PZT) thin films of 360 nm thickness were prepared by a modified composite sol-gel method. PZT films were deposited from both the pure sol and the composite suspension on Pt/Al 2 O 3 substrates by the spin-coating method and were sintered at 650°C. The composite suspension formed after ultrasonic mixing of the PZT nanopowder and PZT sol at the powder/sol mass concentration 0.5 g mL −1 . PZT nanopowder (≈ 40–70 nm) was prepared using the conventional sol-gel method and calcination at 500°C. Pure PZT sol was prepared by a modified sol-gel method using a propan-1-ol/propane-1,2-diol mixture as a stabilizing solution. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicated that the thin films possess a single perovskite phase after their sintering at 650°C. The results of scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses confirmed that the roughness of double-scale composite PZT films (≈ 17 nm) was significantly lower than that of PZT films prepared from pure sol (≈ 40 nm). The composite film consisted of nanosized PZT powder uniformly dispersed in the PZT matrix. In the surface micrograph of the film derived from sol, large round perovskite particles (≈ 100 nm) composed of small spherical individual nanoparticles (≈ 60 nm) were observed. The composite PZT film had a higher crystallinity degree and smoother surface morphology with necklace clusters of nanopowder particles in the sol-gel matrix compared to the pure PZT film. Microstructure of the composite PZT film can be characterized by a bimodal particle size distribution containing spherical perovskite particles from added PZT nanopowder and round perovskite particles from the sol-matrix, (≈ 30–50 nm and ≈ 100–120 nm), respectively. Effect of the PZT film preparation method on the morphology of pure and composite PZT thin films deposited on Pt/Al 2 O 3 substrates was evaluated.
ISSN:0366-6352
1336-9075
1336-9075
DOI:10.2478/s11696-011-0051-0