Influence of annealing on the photochemical deposition of silver onto PZT thin films under UV irradiation

Silver nanoparticle deposition from an aqueous solution of 0.01 M silver nitrate solution onto the c⁺ domain of PZT (30/70) thin films has been investigated for samples annealed at a variety of temperatures from 530 to 690 °C. The impact of annealing was to increase the deposition of photoreduced silver on the surface. When the PZT samples were annealed in air at temperatures ranging from 530 to 690 °C the silver deposition increased by more than 200%. The increase in the deposition of the silver is attributed to increase in the defect concentration due to the volatilisation of components from the PZT, most importantly PbO. Variations in the Pb concentration of the sample are measured using EDX and show a marked change, reduction in Pb, with annealing temperature.