Hydrogen-induced degradation in SrTiO3-based grain boundary barrier layer ceramic capacitors

Hydrogen-induced degradation in SrTiO3-based grain boundary barrier layer ceramic capacitors was studied through electrochemical hydrogen charging, in which the capacitors were placed in 0.01 M NaOH solution with hydrogen deposited on their electrodes from the electrolysis of water. The properties of the capacitors were greatly degraded after 0.5 h of treatment: The capacitance was dramatically decreased and the dielectric loss was dramatically increased over the frequency range of 102–105 Hz, the leakage current was increased by orders of magnitude. It was proposed that atomic hydrogen diffused relatively easily along the grain boundaries and induced a reduction reaction to the grain boundary layer, which resulted in the degradation observed. Hydrogen-induced degradation is more serious in SrTiO3-based grain boundary barrier layer ceramic capacitors than in other ceramic capacitors and great efforts should be made to prevent hydrogen-induced degradation in them.