Sol-gel synthesis and characterization of lead titanate films

Lead titanate thin films have been deposited by spin coating on stainless steel substrate using the precursor sol, which was synthesized from acetylacetone chelating with titanium isopropoxide and ethylene glycol as a solvent, in the sol-gel process. The influence of film thickness, pyrolysis temperature, and heating rate on (the formation of thin films) microstructure and morphology of thin films have been systematically investigated. The phase purity, particle size, and morphology are studied using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements. It is observed that the preferred oriented thin films could be obtained by pyrolysis of wet films at 150 degrees C and annealed at 600 degrees C at a slow heating rate of 4 degrees C/min. It is also confirmed from X-ray patterns that the tetragonal perovskite structure of the titanate exists without any impurity peaks in the films formed. The TGA/DSC curves of the PT precursor show weight loss of similar to 7% and two exotherms at 492 and 522 degrees C. They are attributed to the crystallization of tetragonal PbTiO 3. SEM shows that the PbTiO3 thin films annealed at 600 degrees C for 1 h crystallized well. The FTIR analysis showed the characteristic absorption bands of Pb-O groups at 663 cm(-1) and Ti-oxo groups at 600 cm(-1).