Effect of glass composition on the densification and dielectric properties of BaTiO3 ceramics

An ongoing research goal of thick film capacitors and multilayer capacitors is to lower the firing temperature of the dielectrics. This paper presents the results of using three simple glass systems including PbO–B2O3, PbO–SiO2, and Bi2O3–B2O3 as sintering aids for hydrothermal synthesized BaTiO3. Glasses with different ratios of the modifier/glass former were employed. Effects of adding these glass systems on the BaTiO3 ceramics sintered at 850°C were investigated through measuring and analyzing the density, grain size and dielectric property. It was found that BaTiO3 sintered with glasses composed of 90 mol% PbO–10 mol% SiO2 or 90 mol% PbO–10 mol% B2O3 to 60 mol% PbO–40% B2O3 are helpful to reduce the firing temperature for typical thick film and MLCC applications. They possess high dielectric constant (≈1650) due to their high densification characteristics with the grain size of ≈0.7 μm. In addition, glasses composed of 90 mol% Bi2O3–10 mol% B2O3 to 40 mol% Bi2O3–60 mol% B2O3 are beneficial for thin dielectric layer applications, on account of the high sintering density and a small grain size of ≈0.1 μm with an acceptable K value.