Effects of acceptor and donor additives on the properties of MgTiO3 ceramics sintered under reducing atmosphere

Sintered in reducing atmospheres, MgTiO3 ceramics are known to own ionised oxygen vacancies and conduction electrons which give rise to very poor insu lation resistance. Prompted by the example of BaTiO3 ceramics where accepto r doping agents can trap the conduction electrons and donor doping agents c ompensate the acceptors in place of oxygen vacancies (Hagemann, H. and Henn ings, D., Reversible weight change of acceptor-doped BaTiO3. J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 1981, 64, 590-594), we have investigated on the effects of Mn accepto r and W donor doping agents on the properties of MgTiO3 ceramics sintered u nder a reducing atmosphere of moist N-2-1%H-2. Resistivities higher than 10 (5) M Omega .cm have effectively been obtained in these. doped ceramics and dielectric constant of pure MgTiO3 was proved not to be modified by the pr esence of doping agents. In order to study the possibility of employing the se materials in the production of type-I ceramic multilayer capacitors with base-metal electrodes, co-sintering tests with nickel were investigated. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.