Preparation of barium strontium titanate using a modified polymeric precursor method

Barium strontium titanate with Ba/Sr ratio of 50/50 (BST5) was prepared using a modified polymeric precursor method. Unlike other methods, it proved to be cost effective since neither moisture sensitive nor costly starting materials were used for the preparation. The optimum preparation condition was established, and it was found that an annealing temperature of 600 C with a dwell time of 20 h followed by a heat treatment at 800 C with dwelling time of 4 h is enough to obtain well crystallized, phase pure fine powder of BST5. The oxide powder thus obtained was single phased, crystalline with cubic structure. The average lattice constant of the polycrystalline oxide was examined using XRD and it was determined to be 0.3950 nm (±0.0003 nm). The average crystallite size of the ceramic was found to be about 25–30 nm. The reaction pathway, temperature of decomposition of the precursor and the temperature of formation of the oxide was found using the data from the EGA-TGA-MS coupled instrument. TGA data showed about 75% of total weight loss over the entire heating process. The SEM studies showed that the grains were in micrometer size range, having high degree of agglomeration and irregular morphology. This process is interesting as it yields phase pure BST5 ceramic at a temperature of 800 C devoid of secondary phases like (Ba,Sr)2TiO4.