NANOCRYSTALLINE LEAD TITANATE AND LEAD TITANATE VINYLIDENE FLUORIDE-TRIFLUOROETHYLENE 0-3 NANOCOMPOSITES/

Lead titanate (PT) powders of nanometer particle sizes were prepared u sing a sol-gel process. The PT gel was annealed at various temperature s to produce powders with different particle sizes. X-ray diffractomet ry (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and differential thermal a nalysis (DTA) revealed that the PT gel initially crystallized at an an nealing temperature of 500 degrees C, The crystallite diameter measure d by XRD increased from 27 to 54 nm, while the size of PT particles in creased from 30 to 270 nm as the annealing temperature increased from 500 degrees to 900 degrees C. Lead titanate/vinylidene fluoride-triflu oroethylene (PT/P(VDF-TrFE)) 0-3 nanocomposites with PT volume fractio ns of 0.18 and 0.41 were prepared using PT powders annealed at various temperatures, Because the pyroelectric coefficients of the ceramic an d polymer phases had like signs and the piezoelectric coefficients had opposite signs, the poled composite had high pyroelectric but very lo w piezoelectric activity, thereby reducing vibration-induced electrica l noise in pyroelectric sensor applications.