Synthesis and characterization of Ba6 − 3xSm8 + 2xTi18O54 microwave dielectric ceramics

Dielectric ceramics in the BaO–Sm2O3–TiO2 ternary system have been synthesized and characterized. Solid solutions with the formula Ba6 − 3xSm8 + 2xTi18O54 with x = 0.0, 0.2–0.7 have been synthesized, which are in the vicinity of BaO·Sm2O3·4TiO2 (consistent with x = 0.5) ternary system. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis of synthesized specimens has been done from which lattice parameters as a function of composition (x) were determined. Crystal symmetry was found out to be orthorhombic with space group of Pbam. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was done to observe the microstructural details of the sintered compacts. The synthesized compacts of Ba6 − 3xSm8 + 2xTi18O54 solid solutions exhibited good dielectric properties with dielectric constant (ɛ′) in the range of 65–73 and tangent loss (tan δ) in the range of 2 × 10−2 to 9 × 10−2, in the frequency range of 0.3–3.0 GHz, for their possible use in microwave frequency applications.