Synthesis of BaTiO3 powders by a ball milling-assisted hydrothermal reaction

The effects of ball milling during the hydrothermal BaTiO3 synthesis from nano- and sub-micron sized TiO2 powders were studied. The synthesized BaTiO3 powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), a laser light scattering particle size distribution analyzer, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The XRD patterns showed that BaTiO3 powders could be synthesized using the ball milling system at 100 °C and for 5 h with little contamination. The BaTiO3 powders observed by FE-SEM were agglomerated. The agglomerated particle sizes of BaTiO3 prepared from nano- and sub-miron sized TiO2 particles were 152 ± 42 and 148 ± 21 nm, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that the rate constant of BaTiO3 powder prepared from Ba(OH)2 and sub-micrometer sized TiO2 powder with the ball milling process was twice as large compared to a hydrothermal route without ball milling.