Synthesis and dielectric behavior of nano-scale barium titanate

In this study, an effort has been made to synthesize nano-scale barium titanate powder by sol-gel and hydrothermal methods. Characterization of the synthesized Barium Titanate is conducted by using X-ray diffraction for crystallite size, Transmission Electron Microscopy for particle size and scanning electron microscopy for surface morphology. It is observed that the powders prepared by Sol-gel and hydrothermal routes have almost similar average crystallite size of 34 ± 2 nm. Electrical properties such as dielectric constant, dielectric dissipation factor and electrical resistivity have also been measured. Hydrothermal process has enabled the synthesis of material with higher dielectric constant of 4000 compared to the Sol-gel route value of 1600. The dielectric dissipation factor is measured and found to be below 0.3 over a wide range of frequencies for powders generated using both processes.