Mechanical and Piezoelectric Properties of PZT Nanofibers

This paper reports the measurement of the mechanical and piezoelectric properties of Lead Zirconate Titanate (PbZr₅₂Ti₄₈O₃, PZT) nanofibers. Partially aligned PZT nanofibers were fabricated by sol-gel electrospinning process. The diameters of the fiber were tuned from 50 to 150 nm by changing the concentration of the sol-gel in the precursor. The fiber consists of nanocrystal grains with average grain size of 10 nm. The Young’s modulus of individual fiber was obtained by nanoscale three-point bending using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), which was 42.99GPa. Titanium strip was used as the substrate to collect the nanofibers for the three-point bending test to measure the piezoelectric response. The output voltages from the nanofibers under different strain were recorded by Labview, and the highest value of the output voltage was 0.17±0.005V. These results have shown that PZT nanofibers have great potential in nano sensor and actuator applications.