Journal of University of Science and Technology Beijing
Volume 11, Number 1, February 2004, Page 48
Corresponding author: Fang Lian, E-mail: lianfang2000@263.net
Materials
A new sol-gel process for preparing Ba(Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
nanopowders
Fang Lian, Lihua Xu, Fushen Li, and Hailei Zhao
Department of Inorganic Materials, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
(Received 2003-04-16)
Abstract: Commercially available niobium (V) oxide [Nb
2
O
5
], with barium acetate [Ba(CH
3
COO)
2
] and magnesium acetate
[Mg(CH
3
COO)
2
4H
2
O] was used as the starting material in the sol-gel process for preparing Ba(Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
(BMN) nanopowders.
At first, Nb
2
O
5
reacted with melting sodium hydroxide and transformed into dispersible oxide. The resulting glassy substance after
cooling was dispersed and washed several times in distilled water to remove the Na
+
ions. The as-prepared colloidal Nb
2
O
5
nH
2
O
was subsequently mixed with acetic solution of barium acetate and magnesium acetate according to the required molar proportions
and followed by gelation. The ultrafine BMN powders were finally obtained after heat-treating the gel at 820C for 1 h, and the
as-sintered nanoceramics revealed a high relative density of 98.2%, and a high microwave Q-factor, of 10397 at 1.45GHz.
Key words: Nb
2
O
5
nH
2
O colloid; Ba(Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
nanopowder; sol-gel processing; microwave Q-factor
1 Introduction
With the development of advanced communication
systems, there is an ever-increasing demand for cheap
but high performance microwave dielectrics. The ef-
fective dielectric materials should have a sufficiently
high relative permittivity, low dielectric losses and a
temperature coefficient of resonant frequency near
zero [1]. The complex perovskite Ba(Mg
1/3
Nb
2/3
)O
3
(BMN) [2] and Ba(Mg
1/3
Ta
2/3
)O
3
(BMT) [3-5] are
currently available dielectric ceramics. It is known
that tantalum is a much more expensive metal, the ore
tantalite (60% Ta
2
O
5
) costing $150 per kg, but nio-
b
ium is over 20 times cheaper [6]. So the BMN would
be one of candidate materials of relative cheap and
high performance dielectric ceramics.
As reported, the preparation routes of BMN powd-
ers are primarily based on the solid-state reaction me-
thod [7-8], in which high temperature is often required
to promote the ion diffusion among various oxides.
And the so obtained BMN powders are usually coarse
and agglomerated, which are harmful to the properties
of the final ceramics.
Wet-chemical processes have been widely regarded
as an efficient route to synthesize homogeneous na-
no-crystalline particles at low temperatures. Some
works have been reported to synthesize the BMN
powders via a necessary precursor, niobium alkoxide
derived from the expensive starting powders NbCl
5
.
However, the process for preparing niobium alkoxide
would take a so long time and need the protected at-
mosphere [9,10]. Furthermore, the NbCl
5
was more
difficult to be prepared experimentally because of its
unstable chemical characteristics. This paper presents
a simple and novel approach to prepare BMN nano-
powders with high sinterability. Nb
2
O
5
, due to its
lower cost and abundant resource, was selected as the
starting material to prepare a high quality colloidal
Nb
2
O
5
nH
2
O, instead of the currently used
Nb(OC
2
H
5
)
5
precursor. The fine BMN powders could
be finally obtained after mixing the as prepared col-
loidal Nb
2
O
5
nH
2
O with Mg-acetate and Ba-acetate
and followed gelation and heat treatment. The micro-
structure and the infrared absorption spectra of the
synthesized powders were characterized and examined.
In addition, the microwave dielectric properties were
reported.
2 Experimental procedure
2.1 Preparation of BMN powders and ceramic
Nb
2
O
5
is a kind of almost insoluble substance, ex-
cept in alkali bisulfate, alkali carbonate or caustic al-
kali. It must be transformed into dispersible oxide so
as to improve the activity of Nb
2
O
5
to be used as a key
precursor. In the present work, caustic soda was cho-
sen as a fluxing agent to melt Nb
2
O
5
. These mixture
powders of Nb
2
O
5
and NaOH were put in corundum
crucible and vigorously stirred while heating to
200-300C on a hot plate for about 15 min. The mol-
ten mixture was then moved into a muffle furnace and