Influence of pH value on properties of nanocrystalline BaTiO3 powder

Nanocrystalline BaTiO3 powders were prepared by a simple sol-gel method starting from comparatively cheap raw materials. The effect of pH value on the properties of BaTiO3 powder was investigated. It was found that the pH value of solvent has a great influence on the process of powder fabrication, including colloid formation, gel structure and agglomerates. The mechanism was discussed and the optimal powder preparing condition was proposed in this paper. As-prepared powder was pseudo cubic structure with an average grain size of 13 nm (TEM) and a high BET value of 33 m(2)/g. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd and Techna S.r.l. All rights reserved.