Evaluation of PZT ceramics prepared by aerosol deposition II

Abstract

A comparative study of the sintering behavior of Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ (PZT) ceramics prepared by aerosol deposition (AD) and conventional solid-state sintering (CV) was performed employing same starting powder. PZT thick-films with thickness of 300 um were deposited on the substrate by AD at 600C. Then, bulk PZT ceramics were obtained by etching the substrate, followed by firing at various temperatures from 800 to 1200C for 3 h in air. High remanent polarization (P_r) was achieved in the relatively small grain size (40 uC/cm² for 0.42 um) in AD as compared with CV (40 uC/cm² for 1.00 um). Furthermore, relatively high Vickers hardness (Hv) was achieved in AD as compared with CV below the grain size of 1.0 um. Therefore, it is expected that piezoelectric ceramics with high mechanical properties can be prepared by AD without any sacrifice in electrical properties.