Application of lower temperature for crystallization of PbTiO3 nanopowders by the Sol-gel method

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that PbTiO3 nanopowders with a pure tetragonal phase can be synthesized at a lower temperature of 460°C using the sol-gel method, which is below the Curie temperature, by optimizing heat treatment parameters.

Contribution

It introduces a method to lower the crystallization temperature of PbTiO3 nanopowders below the Curie point using sol-gel synthesis and detailed heat treatment optimization.

Findings

Pure phase PbTiO3 nanopowders synthesized at 460°C

Crystallization improved by optimizing heat treatment parameters

Pb-partitioning phenomenon investigated in detail

Abstract

The aim of this article is to decrease the crystallization temperature of the tetragonal perovskite PbTiO3 nanopowders below the PbTiO3 Curie temperature. At the beginning of our study, the calcination temperature was selected based on the thermal analysis of the PbTiO3 gels, came out at 680{\deg}C. However, reconsidering the thermal properties of the PbTiO3 gel revealed the possibility of the formation of single tetragonal perovskite phase at lower temperatures. Both X-Ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy investigations showed that well crystalline pure phase PbTiO3 nanopowders have been synthesized after calcination of the PbTiO3 gel at 460{\deg}C, which is quite to the Curie temperature of the PbTiO3 nanoparticles. To improve crystallization of the samples prepared at 460{\deg}C, the effect of the heat treatment parameters and Pb content on gel crystallization and the Pb-partitioning phenomenon (section 3.2) were investigated in detail.