A triol-based sol-gel system has been developed for the fabrication of thin films of lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Starting reagents were lead acetate, zirconium and titanium isopropoxides, acetylacetone, and 1,1,1-tris(hydroxymethyl)-ethane (THOME), with 2-methoxyethanol (MOE) being used to dilute the sols for spin coating purposes. Preliminary characterization by NMR spectroscopy suggested that the gels consisted of the metal ions and bound THOME, acetylacetonate, and acetate residues, with some possible M-O-M bridges. Uncracked 0.4 m single-layer PZT films of nominal composition PbZr 0.53 Ti 0.47 O 3 were prepared on platinized substrates. Dielectric and ferroelectric properties were determined for samples made from sols containing 10 and 15 mol% excess lead acetate. Improved values were obtained for samples made from sols containing the higher excess; these exhibited a remanent polarization of 34 C⅐cm ؊1 , a coercive field of 54 kV⅐cm ؊1 , and a relative permittivity of 1000.