Synthesis and dielectric investigations of ZnTiO3 obtained by a soft chemistry route

In this paper, we report a strategy for preparing an inorganic zinc titanate precursor by applying a chemical bath deposition method (CBD) to ZnO nanocrystals in an aqueous layered titanate colloid. The zinc titanate precursor, obtained as a precipitate, undergoes profound changes under the influence of elevated temperatures in normal atmospheric conditions and allows us to obtain zinc titanate ZnTiO3 with a rhombohedral symmetry. Investigations of its dielectric properties enabled us to determine a dielectric permittivity (epsilon) of 25, a low loss factor tan(delta) < 10(-3), and a temperature coefficient (tau(epsilon)) of 18 ppm at the frequency of 1.15 MHz. The density of the zinc titanate ceramic was equal to approximately 80% of the theoretical density of the ZnTiO3 crystals. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.