The effects of aging and concentration on some interesting Sol-gel parameters: A feasibility study for PZT nanoparticles insertion on in-house prepared PAA matrices via electrophoresis A. Suárez-Gómez & José. M. Saniger-Blesa & F. Calderón-Piñar Received: 14 March 2007 / Accepted: 13 November 2007 / Published online: 1 December 2007 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract Sol-gel synthesis has been a very successful and efficient route for obtaining high quality ferroelectric/ piezoelectric materials. Piezoelectric nanostructures, how- ever, constitute a very recent field of research and special emphasis must be put on optimizing the packing of particles inside the nanoporous matrix in order to obtain nanomaterials with potential use on practical applications. In this work we study the influence of some critical sol features (aging time and concentration) on several interest- ing parameters when considering the electrophoretic inser- tion of Lead Titanate Zirconate (PZT) 53/47 nanoparticles in a Porous Anodic Alumina matrix. Our study focuses on pH, Zeta potential, Liquid Surface Tension, Mean Nano- particles Size and Crystallization Routes. According to our results, and despite some previous reports, a successful electrophoretic deposition can be carried out on a wide range of concentrations and aging times. Keywords Sol-gel . Ferroelectricity . Piezoelectricity . Propoxides . pH . Particle aggregation 1 Introduction Sol-gel synthesis and processing of inorganic materials has proven to be a versatile, accurate and low cost procedure in order to guarantee appropriate mixing of reactants at molecular scale and good control over the stoichiometry of the desired compound. Powders, fibres, thin films, monoliths and nano- wires have been obtained elsewhere by means of this method with controlled microstructure and its resulting influence on the final properties and performances of these materials [1, 2]. Far beyond these “final microstructure → properties” correlations, it is well known for the sol gel synthesis process that the stoichiometry, homogeneity, reactions conditions, purity and reactivity of the starting reactants play a decisive role on determining that desired final microstructure. As a result, several synthesis routes have been proposed for the same compound as well as different mixing conditions with numerous molar ratios among reactants. These apparent relativities, however, reinforce the flexible versatility and custom-made capabilities of the sol gel method. Particularly, the Lead Titanate Zirconate ceramic system [Pb(Zr 1 − x Ti x )O 3 ; PZT (1 − x)/ x] is one of the most well known ferroelectric materials due to its high piezoelectric and dielectric response near the Morphotropic Phase Boundary (MPB), when x ~ 0.48, among other interesting features [3] that have been exploited in MEMs, FRAMs, acoustic sensors, ultrasound generation, etc. The sol gel synthesis of PZT has been receiving increasing interest for the last 20 years due to the limitations of the conventional J Electroceram (2009) 22:136–144 DOI 10.1007/s10832-007-9367-0 DO09367; No of Pages A. Suárez-Gómez Centro de Ultrasónica, ICIMAF, Calle 15 #551 e/C y D Vedado, Havana, 10400, Cuba A. Suárez-Gómez (*) : J. M. Saniger-Blesa CCADET, UNAM, Ciudad Universitaria, Circ. Exterior s/n, A.P. 70-186., Coyoacan, DF C.P. 04510, México e-mail: amaury.sg@gmail.com F. Calderón-Piñar Facultad de Física/IMRE, San Lázaro y L, Universidad de la Habana, Havana, 10400, Cuba