A ‘Universal’ Bottom-up Sol-gel Based Synthesis of Pzt (1-x)/x Submicrometric Structures: 1. Dynamic Light Scattering Characterization of Precursor Stability and Aggregation Kinetics

This work proposes an extension of a sol-gel based synthesis route for obtaining highly hydrophobic, uniformly nanosized and stable precursor solutions of lead zirconate titanate [Pb(Zr_1-xTi_x)O₃ or PZT (1-x)/x] for any given (1-x)/x Zr:Ti ratio. Several representative PZT compositions were chosen and their precursors were studied by taking into account the time dependence of the mean particles size andthe predominant aggregation kinetics. Size distributions were recorded by the Dynamic Light Scattering technique and the aggregation kinetics was explored by considering a Diffusion-Limited Colloidal Aggregation model. Transmission electron microscopy was also used to characterize some morphological features of our resultant precursor nanoparticles. Our final results supports the universalization of this approach to any PZT composition and its extension to other material systems. This work is intended to be the first on a series dealing with the sol-gel based synthesis of any PZT material at any scale using a bottom-up approach.

Keywords:
PZT; nanoparticles; sol-gel; dynamic light scattering; aggregation kinetics