Structural and dielectric properties of barium strontium titanate produced by high temperature hydrothermal method

The preparation procedure, structural and dielectric properties of hydrothermally derived BaxSr1-xTiO3 (BST) were studied. BST with initial Ba compositions of 75, 80, 85 and 90 mol.% were prepared by a high temperature hydrothermal synthesis. The obtained powders were pressed into pellet, cold isostatically pressed and sintered at 1200 degrees C for 3 hours. The phase compositions and lattice parameters of the as prepared powders and sintered samples were analysed using X-ray diffractometry. A fitting software was used to analyse the XRD spectra to separate different phases. It was found that BST powder produced by the high temperature hydrothermal possessed a two-phase structure. This structure became more homogeneous during sintering due to interdiffusion but a small amount of minor phase can still be traced. Samples underwent an abnormal grain growth, whereby some grains grow faster than the other due to the presence of two-phase structure. The grain size increased with increasing Ba amount. Dielectric constant and polarisation increased with increasing Ba content but it was also affected by the electronic state and grain size of the compositions. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.