Composition and microstructure of chemically reduced plzt ceramics

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Hot-pressed PLZT ceramic wafers were chemically reduced by a special processing technique on one of the major surfaces to form oxide-reduced layer composite structures. Devices based on such structures have promising characteristics for actuator use. The composition and microstructure of the reduced layer from several PLZT ceramics of different compositions as well as the oxide-reduced layer interface were examined and analyzed by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). A variety of the oxide phases, such as PbO, ZrO2, ZrTiO4 and LaTiO3, were revealed in the reduced PLZT samples by XRD in addition to the anticipated metallic lead phase. SEM micrographs showed that the reduced PLZT ceramics were composed of various fine-grained particles, and the metallic lead formed a continuous phase. It was found that the oxide-reduced layer interface region was composed of a mixture of unreduced and reduced phases. The thickness of the mixed phase region was primarily associated with the grain size of the original unreduced PLZT ceramics.