Synergistic doping effect of La2O3 on BaO-TiO2-SiO2 glass-ceramics: Evolution of physical, structural, morphological, and dielectric behaviour for electronics applications

Abstract

Herein, numerous investigations such as structural, physical, morphological, optical, and dielectric properties of BaO-TiO2-SiO2 glass-ceramics (GCs) doped with La2O3 were carried out. Various glasses were synthesized within a glass system [(30-x)BaO.30TiO2.40SiO2].x[La2O3], (x=0,2,4, and 6 mol% of La2O3) using a conventional melt-quench method. XRD confirmed the amorphous nature of the glass samples. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to identify the glass transition (Tg) and crystallization temperatures (Tc) of the samples. Further, controlled heat treatment of the glasses led to the fabrication of glass-ceramics and their XRD analysis revealed polycrystalline structure, predominantly consisting of a major phase of tetragonal Fresnoite (Ba2TiO8Si2). Furthermore, with the addition of La2O3, the prepared GCs exhibited improved physical properties, including an increase in density (3.783–4.611 g/cm3) and oxygen packing density (81.177–92.303 g-atom/l). Additionally, to study the bonding and structural characteristics, FTIR and Raman spectroscopies were conducted. In order to study the optical properties, UV–visible spectroscopy was executed and showed a reduced indirect energy band gap from 4.290 to 4.220 eV with increasing La2O3. To study the morphological behaviour, SEM and TEM were performed. Eventually, to examine the dielectric characteristics, relative dielectric constant (εr) and dielectric loss (Tan δ) over the glass-ceramics was conducted using a ‘Novocontrol Impedance Analyzer’. The εr and Tan δ values exhibited temperature-dependent behaviour and found to be increased within the frequency range of 1 kHz to 1 MHz. The BTSLC6 glass-ceramic, (24BaO.30TiO2.40SiO2.6La2O3), exhibited a high dielectric constant of ⁓ 9335 and a low dielectric loss of 0.52 at 1 kHz, mainly due to space charge polarization. This makes it a promising candidate for applications in multilayer ceramic capacitors, energy storage, photonics, and electronics. © 2024 Elsevier B.V.