Processing of barium titanate tapes with different binders for MLCC applications—Part II: Comparison of the properties

Most of multilayer ceramic capacitor (MLCC) industries are currently using solvent-based slip system for tape casting. On the other hand, water-based slip formulation has received special attention recently due to reduced health and environmental hazards coupled with a lower cost compared to solvent-based process. Nevertheless, there are no publications on the direct comparison of the two systems using BaTiO3 slip for MLCC applications. Therefore, solvent- and water-based systems were compared systematically in this paper using three different kinds of binders: polyvinyl butyral (PVB) for solvent-based system, and water-soluble acrylic binder and acrylic emulsion for water-based systems. By following several important MLCC production steps, responses such as slip viscosity, mechanical properties of the green tapes, green and sintered density, and dielectric permittivity were compared. Slip viscosity and green tape strength depended significantly on the binder type, while other responses such as green, sintered, and dielectric properties depended on dispersant, ceramic powder and other processing additives.