Obtaining the highly pure barium titanate nanocrystals by a new approach

Purity and synthesis temperature of nanocrystals are key challenges facing the scientific community. Herein a novel solid-state approach to synthesize fine BaTiO3 nanocrystals with narrow size distribution using a high-speed ball-milling process is reported. In order to improve the kinetics of this reaction, the starting materials, BaCO3 and TiO2, were milled for 10 h before mixing and initiating the synthesis reaction. The contribution of this step to the BaTiO3 formation is analyzed by XRD diffractometry and FE-SEM techniques. It was found that the use of the mechanically activated starting materials favors the decomposition of BaCO3 at low temperatures and improves the Ba2+ diffusion through the formed BaTiO3 layer. In consequence, very fine BaTiO3 nanocrystals free from the secondary phases were obtained at a lower temperature in contrast to the previous works. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.