Mechanochemical Synthesis of Dy2TiO5 Single-Phase Crystalline Nanopowders and Investigation of Their Properties

Abstract

Crystalline nanopowders of dysprosium titanate were prepared by the mechanochemical synthesis method using anatase and dysprosium oxide as the initial reagents. The duration of the mechanochemical treatment was 180 min. The crystal structure of mechanochemically synthesized Dy₂TiO₅ corresponds to a high-temperature cubic modification. The particle sizes of mechanochemically synthesized dysprosium titanate were 20–30 nm. The properties of the obtained nanopowders and bulk samples consolidated from them were studied. Commercial Dy2TiO5 powders prepared by melting the oxides were used for comparison. It was found that the Dy₂TiO₅ phase decomposes and the metastable DyTiO₃ phase is formed during the sintering of mechanochemically synthesized nanopowders, which contradicts the classical Dy₂O₃–TiO₂ phase diagram. No phase decomposition was observed in the case of sintering of commercial Dy₂TiO₅ powders.