The barium-strontium titanate (BST) powders are used in fabrication of various microelectronic devices (because of their field- & composition dependent dielectric properties), integrated capacitors & as thin dielectric layer in DRAM (dynamic random access memories). The utility of MH synthesis route in deriving the BST powders was explored in the present studies under strongly alkaline conditions (pH > 12). Potassium titanyl oxalate (KTO) and nitrates of Ba & Sr were used as the starting precursors and KOH as a mineralizer. The typical BST composition, namely, BST with Sr = 0.25 was chosen for the experimentation. All the MH experiments were carried out in the MARS-5 microwave accelerated digestion system (CEM Corpn., USA). The stoichiometric BST powders were obtained under the MH conditions of 200 degrees C, 200 psi, and 30 min when the Ba/Sr ratio (greater than or similar to 3.25) was kept slightly in excess. The acetic acid treated and water washed MH derived powders showed formation of exclusively cubic BST phase (a(0) = 3.992 A degrees) as confirmed by XRD. These powders were further processed in the form of disks and sintered at high temperature (1350 degrees C/4 h) in air to obtain dense (rho >= 92%) ceramic bodies. Electrical measurements on the lapped and electroded samples (sintered at 1350 degrees C/4h) revealed epsilon(T-c) = 6800, tan delta = 0.1% and T-c = 32 degrees C. These properties are comparable to the reported standard data in the literature.

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