Nanocrystalline Lead Titanate and Lead Titanate/Vinylidene Fluoride-Trifluoroethylene 0-3 Nanocomposites

Lead titanate (PT) powders of nanometer particle sizes were prepared using a sol-gel process. The PT gel was annealed at various temperatures to produce powders with different particle sizes. X-ray diffractometry (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential thermal analysis (DTA) revealed that the PT gel initially crystallized at an annealing temperature of 500°C. The crystallite diameter measured by XRD increased from 27 to 54 nm, while the size of PT particles increased from 30 to 270 nm as the annealing temperature increased from 500° to 900°C. Lead titanate/vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene (PT/P(VDF-TrFE)) 0-3 nanocomposites with PT volume fractions of 0.18 and 0.41 were prepared using PT powders annealed at various temperatures. Because the pyroelectric coefficients of the ceramic and polymer phases had like signs and the piezoelectric coefficients had opposite signs, the poled composite had high pyroelectric but very low piezoelectric activity, thereby reducing vibration-induced electrical noise in pyroelectric sensor applications.