Sol-gel synthesis of ultrafine barium titanate using butyl titanate monomer and barium nitrate and its characterization

Barium titanate is a well-known ferroelectric material (T c ≈ 120°C) dominating the dielectric ceramics field for the last five decades and is very widely used in multi-layer capacitors. It is usually prepared via the classical solid state reaction between barium carbonate and titanium dioxide around 1100-1300°C. On the other hand, chemical routes with new precursors are being developed to improve its performance parameters. In the present work, butyl titanate monomer is hydrolyzed in presence of saturated solution of barium nitrate at room temperature resulting in reactive mixture of titania and barium nitrate. The mixture is dried around 100°C and subsequent calcination of these powders under controlled conditions (T ≈ 650°C) led to a high purity, homogeneous BaTiO 3 powder. XRD, DTA/TG/DTG, IR and dielectric measurements were used to characterize the powder. A successful attempt is made to deposit thin films of BaTiO 3 using pulsed ruby laser. The deposited films are characterized by various techniques. These experimental results will also be described in the paper.