Solvent Free Production of Alkaline Earth Metal Titanates folr Electronics Applications

As the electronics industry grows and the trend toward miniaturization continues, the need for high performance electroceramic materials and environmentaly friendly processes for their production will become more prevalent. Barium and strontium titanate are ferroelectric materials commonly used in multi layer ceramic capacitors and also as embedded capacitance in printed circuit boards. Currently these material are synthesized using one of three primary methods. These are sol-gel, hydrothermal crystallization or repeated communition followed by calcination. The proposed research will utilize NanoScale Materials' extensive experience in the development, production and application of high performance nanocrystalline chemicals to product barium and strontium titanate materials with improved performance and using more environmentally friendly processes than the current state-of-the-art. This will be done with a solid phase reaction process that eliminates the large organic solvent and wastewater streams associated with sol-gel or hydrothermal processes. Preliminary research has shown that alkaline earth metal titanates can be produced using high surface area nanocrystalline precursors at significantly lower temperatures and with reduced communition intensity and residence time. In the proposed research, NanoActive TiO2, which has a specific surface area of at least 500 m2/g, will be used as precursor material in conjuntion with commercially available alkaline earth metal oxides, hydroxides and carbonates. Only environmentally friendly byproducts will be released. The titanate materials produced will be evaluated for purity, textural characteristics, dielectric constant and electrical resistivity. A comprehensive economic evaluation will then be done on the best performing electroceramic materials produced anda comparison to the state-of-the-art will be drawn. Phase II research will focus on optimization of the prodouction processes with respect to the desired electronic properties and scaling of production capabilities to the pilot scale wsing methods that are further scalable to commercially viable production capacities. It will also focus on adaptation of NanoScale's proprietary TiO2 production process to synthesize alkaline earth metal titanate coatings for electronic noise suppression applications.