Textured PZT ceramics

Abstract The purpose of this study is to make a textured PZT ceramic starting from tape cast sheet in order to improve their piezoelectric properties. PZT powders with cubic morphology are synthesized by flux growth. XRD and X-EDS analysis show that the obtained grains have a size which can reach 70 µm and present an tetragonal structure, with the Pb(Zr 0,44 Ti 0,56 )O 3 composition. The slurry made from these particles is tape cast on a « Doctor Blade » bench. The last stage consists in densifying the samples. Reorganization of large-size grains during sintering being difficult, the densification turns out to be delicate to operate by natural sintering. More sophisticated methods as hot pressing are used to improve the densification. Both techniques, natural sintering and hot pressing, are compared. The realized samples are characterized by SEM, X-ray diffraction, specific surface area and density measurements, and piezoelectric coefficient d 33 measurements.