Measuring the Permittivity of Ferroelectric Nanoparticles in an Injection Molded Polymer Composite

Sandia National Labs Engineering, 2021–22

Liaison(s): Dr. Todd Monson
Advisor(s): Albert Dato
Students(s): Halie Kim (TL-S), Evan Flitz (TL-F), Emma Cooper, Eduardo De Anda, Zoe Kedzierski (F), Nick Casañas (S), Lilliy Johnson (S)

Barium titanate (BTO) is a ferroelectric material commonly used in capacitors because of its high bulk dielectric constant. Some research has shown that the dielectric constant of BTO increases with decreasing nanoparticle size. Nanocomposites consisting of BTO nanoparticles in ABS plastic were fabricated by injection molding. The team is determining the dielectric constant of BTO for six nanoparticle sizes by measuring the dielectric constants of the nanocomposites and using COMSOL Multiphysics to calculate the dielectric constants of the particles themselves.