Zr-Doped PbTiO

Lead zirconate titanate-based materials have many applications, being components of ultrasound transducers and ceramic capacitors, and STM/AFM actuators (tubes). 

For the preparation of PZT ceramic by the sol-gel method, many precursors are available, but the typical process employs titanium isopropoxide, zirconium propoxide, and lead acetate [91]. In some syntheses, zirconium -butoxide was also used as a Zr source [90]. 

After stirring the mixture of the mentioned reagent for 24 h, a light yellow solution was obtained at room temperature that was transformed by heating at 100 °C into an amorphous PZT gel that was dried and thermally treated to obtain a perovsldte structure. 

Other preparation routes of PZT powders by sol-gel synthesis used lead acetate trihydrate (Pb(OAc)2 3H2O) and zirconium acetylacetonate (Zr(AcCHAc)4) as basic precursors [92]. The solutions were dehydrated at 105 °C for 2h, and after cooling to 80 °C they were mked with the acetate solution of titanium orthotetrabutylate (Ti(OC4H9)4) in the required ratio of Pb Zr Ti = 1 0.53 0.47. A pure perovsldte phase Pb(Zro,s3Tio.47)03 was formed by calcination at 500 °C. 

Lead zirconate titanate (52/48) dense ceramic was obtained also by Xu et al. [93] by using powders synthesized by a hybrid method of sol-gel and solid-state reaction combined with ultrasonic atomization. X-ray diffraction (XRD) 

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