Effect of Coprecipitation Parameters on Powder Characteristics and on Densification of PZT Ceramics

摘要

Effects of coprecipitation parameters on agglomerate size distribution and XRD crystallinity of PZT (53:47) powders obtained from butoxide precursors, were studied. Parameters found to significantly affect the coprecipitation process included: dilution, pH and coprecipitation rate (controlled by H2O added to cause exothermic hydrolysis of the butoxides). Effects of rinsing the precipitates with different concentrations of isopropanol/water solutions were also investigated. Results showed that relative agglomerate size distributions developed during coprecipitation persisted throughout subsequent processing. Sintered densities and microstructures were correlated to the agglomerate size distributions. Most compact and uniform microstructure were obtained with uniform (and smaller) agglomerate distributions and 60/40 isopropanol/water rinsing. (Author)