Effect of Sintering Atmosphere on the Dielectric Properties of BaTiO3 via Boron-Addition Liquid-Phase Sintering

Abstract

Boron-doped BaTi1-xB2xO3+Xmaterials were prepared via organic chelating chemistry using alcohols as solvents/ligands. When sintered under air at 900 °C, those materials were light-yellow colored, and yielded the dielectric properties comparable to those of pristine BaTiO3sintered at 1300 °C. However, they displayed blue/gray color after sinterd under Ar or a reductive atmosphere like 5%H2/Ar at T > 850 °C, and the dielectric properties dramatically changed compared with the samples sintered under air, suggesting the transformation of insulating BaTiO3 into an semiconductor. By contrast, pristine BaTiO3samples differed slightly in the dielectric properties when the sintering atmosphere was shifted from air to Ar or 5%H2/Ar. The possible mechanism of the “reduction” behavior in BaTi1-xB2xO3+Xmaterials (the role of boron in reduction of Ti4+to Ti3+in BaTiO3lattice) is under investigation.