Comparative study on phase development of lead titanate powders

Ultrafme lead titanate (PbTiO3) powders in tetragonal form have been successfully prepared via two processing routes, namely, conventional coprecipitation (CPC) and microemulsion-refined coprecipitation (MCP), The formation process of lead titanate from the resulting precursors was monitored using techniques such as thermal analyses, FTIR spectroscopy, Raman scattering spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction for the phase identification. It was found that the microemulsion-refined processing route led to a lower formation temperature for lead titanate than that observed in the conventional coprecipitation route, and there is no detectable pyrochlore phase during the formation of PbTiO3 in the former case. The two PbTiO3 powders have also been comparatively studied in particle morphology and specific surface areas. It indicates that the microemulsion-refined coprecipitation is the technique that results in the formation of the finer powder of lead titanate than the conventional coprecipitation does in the present work. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.