An investigation of the parameters effecting the agglomerate size of a PZT ceramic powder prepared with a sol–gel technique

This paper describes the production of Pb1.0Zr0.9Ti0.1O3 ceramic powder, by using metal organic precursors as starting materials and a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as an agglomeration control agent. In this study, the effects of water content, aging time and polyvinylpyrrolidone molecular weight on the agglomeration behaviour of the powders were investigated. Least agglomerated powder, with size population ranges 60–200 nm and 200–800 nm, was produced from gel which contained the lower molecular weight of polymer and was unhydrolysed and unaged.