A quantity of silver was evaporated onto platinised-silicon (Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si) and then annealed in air to form a silver-platinum alloy. The lattice spacing of the alloy matched that of the composition of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) used. The surface of the silver-platinum alloy was covered in hillocks. It was found that after PZT was deposited by chemical solution deposition (CSD) these hillocks had disappeared. The presence of mobile Pb and the formation of a transient intermetallic phase (Pt3Pb) was taken as the cause for this planarisation. Nucleation of perovskite PZT occurred earlier on silver-platinum compared to a film deposited onto platinised-silicon. The degree of preferred orientation developed for the film on the alloyed electrode was not as good as that found on platinised-silicon.