Low Temperature Sintering of PZT

This paper describes the fabrication and characterization of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films fired in a liquid-phase sintering process at 900 °C in air. In detail the manufacturing of piezoelectric multilayers with internal pure silver (T_m = 961 °C) electrodes are reported. The feasibility of ten sintering aids in two different volume fractions was investigated for a commercial hard PZT powder (PIC 181, PI Ceramics) with respect to density, microstructure, mechanical behaviour, and piezoelectric properties. Li₂O, Li₂CO₃, PbO, MnO₂, V₂O₅, CuO, Bi₂O₃, the eutectic mixtures Cu₂O·PbO and PbO·WO₃ and the ternary system Li₂CO₃·Bi₂O₃·CuO (LBCu) have been tested as liquid phase sintering aids. The combination of PZT with LBCu showed the best results. With 5 vol.% LBCu an average relative density of 97% and a characteristic breaking strength of 77 MPa was achieved. Composition of PZT with 2 vol.% LBCu exhibits the highest averaged piezoelectrical charge constant (d₃₃) of 181 pC/N