Synthesis and characterization of zinc titanate doped with magnesium

Zinc titanate crystals doped with magnesium have been grown by conventional solid state reaction technique using metal oxides. It is shown that they are semiconductors. The characteristics of zinc titanate samples were found to depend on the heating conditions and the amounts of additions. Our studies revealed that magnesium can replace the zinc ion and forms a solid solution in the ZnTiO₃ phase. The electrical resistivity of (Zn,Mg)TiO₃ varied with sintering temperature, and has a minimum when sintered at 900 °C. Increasing amounts of magnesium will also decrease the resistivity. A V-shaped temperature dependence of resistivity was observed. Furthermore, the dielectric constant increased with sintering temperature and decreased with increasing amounts of magnesium. It also shows a maximum Q factor at a frequency of 8GHz for the sample of (Zn_0.9, Mg _0.1)TiO₃ sintered at 900 °C.