Quantifying the Improvement in Dielectric Properties of BaSrTiO3-Based Ceramics by Adding MgO

Abstract

Barium titanate (BaTiO3, BT) is the main raw material of multilayer ceramic capacitors. As thinner layers of dielectric elements require smaller BT grain diameters, BT-MgO composites have been widely studied owing to the plasticity of MgO and its inhibition of grain growth. However, further improvements of the dielectric properties of the BT-MgO system are still urgently needed. Herein, composite ceramics of Ba0.7Sr0.3Ti0.9925Tm0.01O3 (BST)-x mol% MgO (x = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) were prepared. The dielectric constant of BST-1 mol% MgO at room temperature was approximately 3800, which was 1/3 times higher than that of BT-MgO composite ceramics. The dielectric loss was less than 0.004 and 2/3 that of BT-MgO composite ceramics. The Curie temperature of BST doped with MgO was below 0 °C. The anomalous increase in dielectric constant was caused by the co-doping of Sr and Tm with BT, while the reduced dielectric loss was due to the uniform dispersion of MgO at grain boundaries, which hinders grain growth. The Curie temperature shift was mainly due to accumulated oxygen vacancies. Thus, this work provides new solutions to further improve the dielectric properties of the BT-MgO system, including changing the doping elements and adjusting the doping ratio.