Chemical Processing: What Is Barium Titanate Often Used For?

The chemical manufacturing industry uses a huge number of compounds to create products we rely on every day. This includes barium titanate, BaTiO3.

To find out more about barium titanate and what it is used for in everyday life, read on. 

Barium titanate explained

Barium titanate is a ferroelectric ceramic material, which can be found in 19 variations. 

As well as being ferroelectric, it is pyroelectric and piezoelectric, and exhibits a photorefractive effect.

It has a peculiar dielectric behaviour as a result of its lattice transition; for instance, it experiences a high dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss. 

Subsequently, it is one of the main positive temperature coefficient (PTC) materials, which are those that experience increasing electrical resistance as the temperature gets higher. 

What’s more, its electric properties are very sensitive to microstructure and defects, which means it has to be handled carefully to stay in the same state.

Barium titanate is usually in the form of a white powder. However, when prepared as large crystals, it becomes transparent. 

What is it used for?

Make capacitors

Due to its electrical properties, it is widely used in the electronics industry to make capacitors. It has dielectric constant values as high as 7,000, and can even go up to 15,000, which is significantly higher than common ceramic and polymer materials, which are usually less than ten. 

It is a key component of barium titanate capacitor energy storage systems that are used in electric vehicles (EVs). This is due to their fast charge and discharge rate, high stability, and high power density, according to MDPI. 

As the uptake of EVs increases around the world, with more than 40 million EVs already in use, the demand for barium titanate capacitor energy storage systems is set to soar in coming years. Indeed, there were just 26 million in 2022, showing the increasing rate of EV ownership.

Transducers

Barium titanate is also used to manufacture piezoelectric transducers and electromechanical transducers, including microphones. These transducers convert electrical charges into energy.

Other examples of piezoelectric transducers include sonar systems, seismographic measurements, and piezo auto actuators in cars, which turn the electric signal into a ‘stroke’, which can adjust mirrors and lenses. 

Nonlinear optics

Barium titanate is frequently used in nonlinear optics in the form of crystals, which involves the occurrence of physical phenomena when high-intensity light hits nonlinear materials. 

This is because barium titanate has high beam-coupling gain, so it can be used at both visible and almost invisible wavelengths. 

Thermal cameras

Thanks to its pyroelectric and ferroelectric properties, barium titanate can be used in uncooled sensors fitted in thermal cameras.

These work by converting infrared waves into images that show temperature variations.

Thermal cameras can be used for a number of purposes, including for industrial inspections, to detect leaks, for search and rescue missions, for firefighting missions, and for electrical wiring maintenance.

Thermistors

The compound can be used in semiconductor-based resistors that are sensitive to temperature, otherwise known as thermistors, and temperature co-efficient heating elements by being manufactured with dopants.

This gives the material semiconductor properties, so that it can be used for applications, such as fluorescent lights, automobile cabin air heaters, consumer space heaters, overcurrent protection for motors. 

Nanocarriers

Barium titanate also has biocompatibility properties, which makes it a good tool for being a nanocarrier for drug delivery. 

This involves barium titanate nanoparticles (BTNPs) transporting drugs to specific areas of the body, carrying drugs that are either absorbed, dissolved, entrapped or covalently affixed to the surface of the nanocarrier.

Its role as a nanocarrier for drug delivery makes barium titanate very useful, as it allows medication to be taken to sites of the body that would otherwise be inaccessible, such as the brain and specific tumour sites.

Knock sensors in automotive sector

The compound has many uses in the automotive industry, including being used to create knock sensors. 

These detect vibrations and timings of explosions that are being created in the engine before converting it into signals sent to the engine control module (ECM). This prevents engine knock, which could damage the vehicle’s engine if not rectified and is potentially very dangerous for the driver and passengers.

These are just a few ways barium titanate can be used, as a result of its many properties, providing assistance in a wide range of industries, from the automotive sector to healthcare.