Preparation of Bi<sub>4</sub>Ti<sub>3</sub>O<sub>12</sub> (BIT) Ceramics via a High-Energy Ball Milling Process Doped with Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWNTs)

Abstract

We prepared the Nano-sized bismuth titanate Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 (BIT) powders, through a high-energy ball milling process from their oxides Bi 2 O 3 and TiO 2 . This BIT phase can be formed after a milling process for 40 min. With an increasing milling time, this particle size of mixture is gradually reduced, thus, we have mostly an amorphous phase. The BIT ceramics were duly obtained by sintering the synthesized powders at temperatures ranging from 850˚C to 1000˚C. The BIT ceramics sintered at 1020˚C for 1 h, exhibiting a density with 7.52 g/cm 3 of a crystaline phase and a dielectric of K = 288.11 (100 Hz), as well as a dielectric loss of 0.05 (100 kHz). The High-energy ball milling process is a promising way to prepare BIT ceramics. After the preparation of the BIT, we doped it with the Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes which are properly obtained by a chemical vapour deposition (CVD), using nickel as a catalyst, as well as using acetilene at 720˚C, and then proceeded with the dielectric and optical measurements.