Synthesis and characterization of Mo-doped barium strontium titanate nanopowder via slow injection sol-gel processing

Barium strontium titanate (BST) is a perovskite utilized in a variety of applications. Hence, the main aim of this research was synthesizing and characterizing BST and Mo-doped BST nanopowders so that the effect of Mo on some properties of BST was investigated. They were synthesized through a slow injection sol-gel method calcined at 800 degrees C. The SEM image of BST and Mo-doped BST nanopowders revealed that more agglomerated particles with the respective grain size of 40.13 and 27.00 nm, respectively, were obtained. Incorporation of Mo to BST has resulted in lowering of average crystal sizes from 23.97 to 17.84 nm, from the XRD data. The particle size of Mo-BST was also obtained from the TEM as 24.591 nm. The BET data revealed that lowering of the specific surface area from 557.9 to 54.2 m(2)/g was accompanied by reduction of pore volume with almost constant porous size, after the incorporation of Mo6+ to BST. From the XPS data, the binding energy of Mo-3d in the BST powder was found as Mo6+ 3d(5/2) (232 eV) and Mo6+ 3d(3/2) (235 eV) confirming the existence of Mo on the BST perovskite which has been further supported by the EDS spectrum and Raman spectroscopy data, while the functional groups such as Mo-O, Ti-O, Ba-O, Sr-O were revealed by the FTIR spectrum in the range 400-600 cm(-1). All the data supported the conclusion that Mo-doped BST has been effectively synthesized through a slow injection sol-gel method with varied properties from the pure BST.

Automated summary

Barium strontium titanate (BST) and Mo-doped BST nanopowders were synthesized and characterized in this study. The incorporation of Mo affected the crystal size, specific surface area, and pore structure of BST. The presence of Mo in BST was confirmed by XPS, EDS, Raman spectroscopy, and FTIR spectroscopy.