Fabrication and mechanical property of nano piezoelectric fibres

Aligned piezoelectric (PZT) nanofibres were fabricated by electrospinning using PZT sol–gel as precursor. A pure perovskite phase with an average grain size of 10 nm was obtained at 650 °C. The average diameter of these fibres could be controlled to range from 52 to 150 nm by varying the concentration of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) in the precursor. Special samples of PZT nanofibres were deposited across the microfabricated trenches on a silicon wafer. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure the mechanical properties of a single nanofibre. The elastic modulus of an individual PZT nanofibre that was obtained was 42.99 GPa, which was smaller than that of a thin-film PZT. The possible reasons for the reduction in elastic modulus of the nanofibres were discussed.