Abstract

Magnesium titanate based dielectric materials are used for producing type-I capacitors. A common way of obtaining this material is a solid-state reaction. The process of sintering can be enhanced if mechanical activation preceedes. In this work starting powders of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) with a rutile crystal modification were weighed to attain a 1:1 molar MgCO3:TiO2. Mechanical activation of the starting mixture was performed by high energy ball milling using ZrO balls and vessels with ball to powder mass ratio 40:1. The observed grinding times were 15, 30, 60 and 120 minutes. The isothermal sintering of compacted powders was conducted at 1100oC during 30, 60 and 180 minutes. For specimens synthesized in such a manner, microwave dielectric properties were measured, quality factor Q and the dielectric constant (#x3B5;r) in function of frequency. The measurements of electrical resistivity, capacitance and loss tangent of samples were measured in the frequency range from 500 Hz to 5 MHz frequencies with a HIOKI 3532-50 LCR HiTESTER device at a constant voltage mode (amplitude 0.5 V of sinusoidal signal applied to the specimens).