A facile one step conversion of the sub-micrometer to uniform nanopowder in tetragonal BaTiO3 via a surface active etching salt

Abstract

A reasonable design of nanoscale ferroelectric ceramic fillers, with well-controlled shape and size, has become very interesting in modern energy storage applications. A convenient “top-down” process was proposed to obtain nanoparticle products of tetragonal barium titanate (BaTiO3) with highly accurate stoichiometry and morphological control. The key point of this work emphasized that a micrometer-sized precursor decreases to nanometer-sized product particles, and its irregular shape changes to nearly spherical with narrow size distribution. Both XRD and Raman results of BaTiO3 nanoparticles indicated a tetragonal crystal structure. The 77.5 ± 2.5 nm sized BaTiO3 powder product still polarized spontaneously at room temperature and the ferroelectric phase transition was confirmed at around 127 °C. Dielectric permittivity was found to be ~ 166.42 by Landauer-Bruggeman effective medium approximation (LB-RMA). Experimental procedures revealed a possible process mechanism observed within the etched surface and Oriented-attachment growth models, and this demonstrated approach could be used as an excellent platform for preparing ceramic nanoparticles. It also could be extended to synthesize complex oxide of functional materials for the preparation of other ceramic/polymer-based nanocomposites that achieve desirable properties.