Partially Aligned Piezoelectric Nanofibers by Sol-Gel Electrospining Process

This paper reports the fabrication of partially aligned Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) nanofibers with an average diameter of 150 nm by Sol-Gel Electrospinning process. Both randomly distributed and uniaxially aligned PZT fibers were obtained from the sol-gel PZT solution with viscosity modified by polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP). The diameters of the nano fibers can be further reduced or controlled for different applications. SEM, TEM and x-ray diffraction (XRD) are used to characterize the nano-fibers and their crystal structures. XRD confirmed that pure perovskite phase was formed after the as-spun fibers being annealed at about 650°C. Different approaches have been explored to fabricate the uniaxially-aligned PZT nano-fibers. Microelectromechanical (MEMS) based micro-fabrication technologies are used to assist the development of the nano-fibers in designing the test samples, depositing and patterning the electrodes, and also testing the performance of the nano fibers.