A comparison of the nanostructure of lead zirconate, lead titanate and lead zirconate titanate sols

Sol-gel processing has been widely used for the fabrication of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films. To successfully and consistently make high quality thin films for different applications, we must develop a fundamental understanding of the structures of the sols. In this study, the characters of lead titanate (PT) and lead zirconate (PZ) sols were studied by measuring the rheological properties and particle sizes in them and comparing their behaviours. The average particle sizes in unhydrolysed PT, PZ and PZT sols are 11.5, 1.0, and 6.0 nm, respectively. PT sol has the highest rate of hydrolysis. It gels at about 24 h after hydrolysis. PZ and PZT sols have a quite similar feature in hydrolysis. The reasons for the differences in the hydrolysis behaviour of the different types of sol are discussed in terms of a model which indicates that the inhomogeneous sols consist of 5 to 6 nm PT particles surrounded by much smaller PZ particles, which tend to dominate the sol behaviour.