Sintering Behavior of BST Nanoparticles at Low Temperature and Electrical Properties of their Ceramics

The powders of the Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3 (BST) nanoparticles were directly synthesized by milling of Ba(OH)2·8H2O, Sr(OH)2·8H2O and Ti(BuO)4 in ethanol at room temperature. They have homogenous grains of ~15 nm and the high sintering activity. The dense ceramics with the density >90% can be obtained at a sintering temperature of ≤950 oC by them with adding 3 wt% sintering aids of Bi2O3 and Li2CO3. The sintering behavior of the BST nanoparticles by adding the aids of Bi2O3 and Li2CO3 is studied carefully. Several Bi-related compounds are involved in the sintering procedure at a different temperature. They enhance the mass transfer and promote the sintering densification. These compounds such as Ba2BiO4 and SrBiO4 appear at 800 oC, LiBa4Bi3O11 and Sr1.2Bi0.8O3 appear over 830 oC, and Bi8.11Ba0.89O13.05 appears at 950 oC. The cation Bi in the ceramics has mixture valences of 3+ and 5+. It makes the ceramics as semiconducting state with the dark gray color and decreases the ceramics resistivities. With the sintering temperature increase, especially at 950 oC, the cation Bi tends back to single valence of +3 in the ceramics. The most of alkaline earth cations in Bi-related compounds will release and resorb into the lattice of BST and drive the densification of the nanoparticles. The BST ceramics can have a peak dielectric constant >6500 at 53 oC, loss <0.025, and resistivity >1012 W·cm when sintered at a temperature of ≥900 oC with 3 wt% sintering aids. They have a potential application for multiple layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) with silver inner-electrodes.