Synthesis and characterization of perovskite PbTiO₃ nanoparticles with solution processability

Ferroelectrics with perovskite structure (ABO₃), for example, lead titanate (PbTiO₃), are the most studied ferroelectric oxides because of their versatile properties for use in thin film capacitors, electronic transducers, actuators, high-k dielectrics, pyroelectric sensors, and nonlinear optics. The studies on nanostructured PbTiO₃ are limited, mainly due to the lack of facile synthetic techniques to prepare nano-sized PbTiO₃, i.e., colloidal PbTiO₃ nanoparticles. Herein, we presented a novel nonaqueous, relatively low temperature, and highly scalable route to PbTiO₃ nanoparticles. The use of oleic acid as surface capping ligand provides nanoparticles with good solubility in organic solvents, thereby enabling the low-cost solution based processing. Rather than the use of expensive bimetallic alkoxide precursors, common chemicals were utilized in this non-hydrolytic thermal decomposition approach; moreover, there is no need for extremely high temperature and long reaction time, making it possible for the large scale synthesis.