Experimental investigation of the effects of water electrolysis parameters on the amount of hydrogen damage in Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃

Water electrolysis technique has been used in this work to investigate the interactions between hydrogen and Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT), and the effects of water electrolysis parameters on the amount of hydrogen damage have been investigated. Microstructural investigations show that increasing the current density during water electrolysis will increase the amount of hydrogen damage, while increasing the voltage during water electrolysis treatment will decrease the amount of hydrogen damage. The mechanisms by which changing the current density and voltage affects the amount hydrogen damage are tentatively proposed. The changes in the capacitance and dissipation factor of PZT after water electrolysis are investigated, and a simple model has been developed to correlate the electrical properties changes to the thickness of the corroded layer.