Lead zirconate titanate ceramics derived from oxide mixture treated by a high-energy ball milling process

Lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃ or PZT) ceramics were directly prepared from their oxide mixture, which was treated by a high-energy ball milling process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) result indicated that there was no reaction between the component oxides during the milling process. The particle size of the mixture was greatly reduced to nanometer scale by the milling process. Sintering behavior of the mixture demonstrated a distinguished volumetric expansion before densification, clearly showing that a reaction sintering occurred at about 770°C. PZT ceramics sintered at 1000°C for 4 h exhibited a dielectric constant of 1156 and dielectric loss of 0.03, a remnant polarization of 29 μC/cm² and a coercive field of 18.4 kV/cm. Piezoelectric parameters of the 1000°C-sintered PZT ceramics were k₃₃ of 40.4%, k₃₁ of 40.9%, d₃₃ of 175 pC/N and d₃₁ of -148 pC/N, respectively. These results have shown tha t preparation of PZT ceramics in this way is practical.