Microstructure evolution and electrical characterization of Lanthanum doped Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) ceramics

In the current work, we investigated the structural and dielectric properties of Lanthanum oxide (La2O3) doped Barium Titanate (BaTiO3) ceramics and established a correlation between them. Solid state sintering method was used to dope BaTiO3 with 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 mole% La2O3 under different sintering parameters. The raw materials used were La2O3 nano powder of ~80nm grain size and 99.995% purity and BaTiO3 nano powder of 100nm grain size and 99.99% purity. Grain size distribution and morphology of fracture surface of sintered pellets were examined by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope and X-Ray Diffraction analysis was conducted to confirm the formation of desired crystal structure. The research result reveal that grain size and electrical properties of BaTiO3 ceramic significantly enhanced for small amount of doping (up to 0.5 mole% La2O3) and then decreased with increasing doping concentration. Desired grain growth (0.80-1.3 µm) and high densification (<90% theoretical density) were found by proper combination of temperature, sintering parameters and doping concentration. We found the resultant stable value of dielectric constant was 10000-12000 at 100-300 Hz in the temperature range of 30°-50° C for 0.5 mole% La2O3 with corresponding shift of curie temperature around 30° C. So overall this research showed that proper La3+ concentration can control the grain size, increase density, lower curie temperature and hence significantly improve the electrical properties of BaTiO3 ceramics.