Characteristics of 5 mol% Ce3+-doped barium titanate nanowires prepared by a combined route involving sol–gel chemistry and polycarbonate membrane-templated process

Ba0.95Ce0.05Ti0.9875O3 nanowires were fabricated by sol–gel method using as template a polycarbonate membrane with channels of 100 nm diameter. FE-SEM analyses showed that continuous gel wires of length up to 17 µm and an average diameter of 81 nm, were obtained. After calcination at 700 °C for 1 h, these green 1D nanostructures were converted into well-crystallised wires with an average diameter of 59.7 nm, as high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction indicated. The piezoelectric activity of the Ba0.95Ce0.05Ti0.9875O3 nanowires was investigated using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) correlated with atomic force microscopy. The results of PFM measurements indicated that the wires exhibit a significant fraction of ferroelectric domains larger than the grains size and a good piezoelectric response.