Hydrothermal Synthesis of Ba1-xMxTiO3 Nanopowder and its Characterization

Abstract

BaTiO3 has been widely used as a primary material in various electronic devices including thermistors, electro-optical devices, and multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs) due to its prominent dielectric properties. The advances in portable devices necessitate the fabrication of miniaturized MLCCs maintaining high capacity. In this regard the size of BaTiO3 powders is essential to be reduced below 100nm for the 0.5 μm-thickness dielectric layers. However, the dielectric constant of the BaTiO3 particle gradually decreases due to the size effect which is caused by the inevitably formed cubic shell layer and inner pores. In this study, Sub-100nm-sized Ba1-xMxTiO3 nanopowders are synthesized via facile hydrothermal process. We carry out dielectric measurement of powder to confirm the influence of dopants to the dielectric constant of the synthesized nanopowders itself. The phase and morphology of resulting Ba1-xMxTiO3 nanoparticles have been characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The behavior of the synthesized powders at high temperature is observed using in-situ TEM.