Influence of TiO2 additive on sintering temperature and microwave dielectric properties of Mg0.9Ni0.1SiO3 ceramics

(1-x)Mg0.90Ni0.1SiO3-xTiO2 (x = 0, 0.01, 0.03, 0.05) ceramics were successfully formed by the conventional solid-state methods and characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and their microstructure and microwave dielectric properties systematically investigated. It was observed that when TiO2 content increased from 0 to 5 wt%, the Quf(o) of the sample decreased from 118,702 GHz to 101,307 GHz and increases the tau(f) value from 10 ppm/degrees C to +3.14 ppm/degrees C accompanied by a notable lowering in the sintering temperature (125 degrees C). A good combination of microwave dielectric properties (epsilon(r) similar to 8.29,Quf(o) similar to 101,307 GHz and tau(f) similar to -2.98 ppm/degrees C) were achieved for Mg0.9Ni0.1SiO3 containing 3 wt% of TiO2 sintered at 1300 degrees C for 9 h which make this material of possible interest for millimeter wave applications. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.