Dynamic nanocrystal response and high temperature growth of carbon nanotube-ferroelectric hybrid nanostructure

Unveiling the Role of CNTs in the Phase Formation of One-Dimensional Ferroelectrics

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have the potential to act as templates or bottom electrodes for three-dimensional (3D) capacitor arrays, which utilize one-dimensional (1D) ferroelectric nanostructures to increase the memory size and density. However, growing a ferroelectric on the surface of CNTs is nontrivial. Here, we demonstrate that multiwalled (MW) CNTs decrease the time and temperature for the formation of lead zirconium titanate Pb(Zr1-xTix)O3 (PZT) by ∼100 °C commensurate with a decrease in activation energy from 68 ± 15 to 27 ± 2 kJ/mol. As a consequence, monophasic PZT was obtained at 575 °C for MWCNTs/PZT, but for pure PZT, traces of pyrochlore were still present at 650 °C, where the PZT phase formed due to homogeneous nucleation. The piezoelectric nature of MWCNTs/PZT synthesized at 500 °C for 1 h was proven. Although further work is required to prove the concept of 3D capacitor arrays, our result suggests that it is feasible to utilize MWCNTs as templates/electrodes for the formation of 1D PZT nanoferroelectrics.

Enhanced electrical properties in ferroelectric thin films on conductive Au–LaNiO3 nanocomposite electrodes via modulation of Schottky potential barrier

In this work, ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) thin films deposited on Au–LNO nanocomposite bottom electrode exhibited enhanced ferroelectric properties via modulation of Schottky potential barrier at the ferroelectric film/electrode interface.