Structural and electrical characterization of electro spray deposited PZT sol-PZT nanopowder composite thick films

In piezoelectric market, infrared detectors, pyroelectric and piezoelectric sensors, microwave devices, actuators, transducers, non-volatile random access memories, and micro electromechanical systems are fabricated using lead zirconate titanate (PZT) based films. These films are deposited by chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition spin coating, screen printing and electrospray deposition (ESD) technique. Among them, ESD is the most preferred method because of its high material efficiency, simplicity of experimental set up, wide choice of precursor and low cost. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to fabricate and characterize the ESD deposited PZT films. In our study, Pb(Zr_0.52 Ti_0.48)O₃(PZT) nano powders (Nanotech Corp. Turkey) and MMC PZT sol (Mitsubishi Corp. Japan) combinations were mixed in various concentrations. Prepared composite PZT slurries were coated with ESD technique. Fabricated PZT thick films were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction method (XRD) to evaluate surface and crystal structure of the films. The results show that, MMC sol and PZT nanopowder combinations provide smooth and homogeneous film surface, dense and non-cracked film microstructure was observed using excess PbO during sintering.