Lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr(0.52)Ti(0.48))O(3)) (PZT) nano-powder with a perovskite structure was fabricated using sol-gel process. The average crystallite diameter of the PZT powder is calculated to be 23.6 nm and the average agglomerate size is about 200 nm. The 0-3 cement based nano-PZT composites were obtained by pressing the mixture of white cement and the nano-PZT powders under a high pressure followed by steam curing. The properties of the nano-PZT/cement piezoelectric composites have been measured and compared to the PZT/cement composites incorporated with ground coarse PZT particles. The enhanced piezoelectricity of the nano-PZT/cement composites can be attributed to the good connectivity between the nano-PZT particles among the cement matrix. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.