Preparation and characterisation of ultrafine lead titanate (PbTiO3) powders

Ultrafine lead titanate (PbTiO3) powders in tetragonal form have been successfully prepared via three processing routes, namely, conventional co-precipitation, microemulsion-refined freeze drying, and microemulsion-refined co-precipitation. The formation process of lead titanate from the resulting precursors was monitored using techniques such as thermal analyses and X-ray diffraction for phase identification. It was found that the two microemulsion-refined processing routes led to a lower formation temperature for lead titanate than that observed in the conventional co-precipitation route. The three lead titanate powders have also been compared for particle and agglomerate size distributions and specific surface a rea. It appears that the microemulsion-refined co-precipitation is the technique which results in the formation of the finest lead titanate powder amongst the three processing routes investigated in the present work. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.