This
paper reports a poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)-assisted synthesis
of Ag@BaTiO3 (BT) core@shell particles, consisting of smooth
and fully coated BT shells on Ag cores. PVP adheres to Ag by coordination
attraction, and it is present as a framework on the Ag surface. Driven
by the adhesion forces from PVP, fully coated BT shells form on the
template of the PVP framework. The shell phase is formed through a
modified low-temperature direct synthesis method. Scanning electron
microscopy examination of morphological evolution reveals smooth surfaces
of the oxide coatings on Ag cores. X-ray diffraction pattern, energy-dispersive
X-ray spectra, line scan, and mapping confirm the phase, chemical
composition, and configuration of the shells. The synthesis method
in this paper can achieve controllability of the growth rate and shell
thickness. Because of the fully coated shells of BT, the poly(dimethylsiloxane)
composites filled with synthesized core@shell fillers have very small
leakage currents of ∼10–8–10–7 A/cm2. A high permittivity of 202 (εr/εm = 84) and a low dielectric loss of 0.003 are
achieved at 1 MHz in composites filled with 40 vol % Ag@BT fillers.
Lichtenecker’s theory containing the equivalent permittivity
of core@shell Ag@BT originating from interfacial polarization is used
to account for the dielectric constant of the composite. The smooth
and fully coated Ag@BT core@shell particles can be used in composite
materials for high-dielectric-constant and low-loss applications.