Measuring the Permittivity of Ferroelectric Nanoparticles in an Epoxy Composite

Sandia National Laboratories Engineering/Physics, 2017-18

Liaison(s): Dr. Todd Monson
Advisor(s): Albert Dato, Peter Saeta
Students(s): Andrew Bishop (TL-S), Richard Liu (TL-F), Alejandro Baptista, Lupe MacIntosh, Charles Dawson (F), Benjamin Lehman (S)

Barium titanate (BTO) is a ferroelectric material commonly used in capacitors because of its high bulk dielectric constant, which may be even higher in nanoparticle form. We are determining the dielectric constant of BTO nanoparticles as a function of particle size by measuring composites of BTO nanoparticles in epoxy. We’re using ball-milling alongside surfactants to reduce nanoparticle ag-glomeration, examining particle geometry using scanning electron microscopy, and using finite element analysis to extract the dielectric constant of the nanoparticles.