Synthesis and characterization of compositionally modified PZT by wet chemical preparation from aqueous solution

Compositionally modified PZT powders of Nb-doped PZT and PMN–PZT were synthesized via two processing routes, namely coprecipitation and evaporative decomposition. The new precursor of ZrxTi1−x-peroxo-nitrate solution was stable and suitable for the synthesis processes. For Nb-doped PZT, reactive fine powders of single-phase perovskite were formed at temperature as low as 600 °C in both methods and fairly high specific surface areas of 17 m2/g (coprecipitation) and 8 m2/g (evaporative decomposition) were obtained for the synthesized powders. For PMN–PZT, evaporative decomposition process effectively yielded the phase-pure perovskite without the pyrochlore at 700 °C.