Wet routes of high purity BaTiO3 nanopowders

High purity BaTiO3 nanopowders were prepared in wet routes through stearic acid gel (SAG) and acetic acid gel (AAG) techniques, respectively. BaTiO3 samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope, Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and thermal gravimetric analysis. The present results indicate that both methods have a similar reaction process during calcination, while BaTiO3 crystallites were initially formed at 550 degrees C by SAG and 800 degrees C by AAG. Both methods could produce BaTiO3 powders with a cubic perovskite structure, while they had different grain size distributions within 25-50 nm for SAG and 50-80 nm for AAG. BaTiO3 samples prepared by SAG had a lower agglomeration than those by AAG. SAG has shown many distinctive advantages in the preparation of high purity BaTiO3 nanopowders, without Ba and Ti losses and hazardous wastes. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.