Production of Ba(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramic by coprecipitation

A simple coprecipitation technique was successfully applied for the preparation of pure, nanosized, single phase Ba(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 microwave dielectric ceramic powders. Barium, zinc and niobium ions were precipitated as hydroxide under basic conditions using aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and single phase Ba(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 ceramic was produced at 800 °C. TEM revealed an average particle size of around 100 nm for the calcined powders. The samples sintered at 1250 °C for 4 h had a relatively high density and fine grain sizes. While the dielectric constant of ceramics varied between 37.5 and 39.8 the dielectric losses were lower than 4 × 10− 3 at frequency range of 1 kHz–2 MHz between 20 and 200 °C.

► Production of BZN by coprecipitation.
► Nanoscale BZN powder.
► Dielectric properties of BZN.