Hydrogen-induced degradation in SrTiO3-based grain boundary barrier layer ceramic capacitors

Hydrogen-induced degradation in SrTiO3-based grain boundary barrier layer ceramic capacitors was studied through electrochemical hydrogen charging, in which the capacitors were placed in 0.01 M NaOH solution with hydrogen deposited on their electrodes from the electrolysis of water. The properties of the capacitors were greatly degraded after 0.5 h of treatment: The capacitance was dramatically decreased and the dielectric loss was dramatically increased over the frequency range of 10(2)-10(5) Hz, the leakage current was increased by orders of magnitude. It was proposed that atomic hydrogen diffused relatively easily along the grain boundaries and induced a reduction reaction to the grain boundary layer, which resulted in the degradation observed. Hydrogen-induced degradation is more serious in SrTiO3-based grain boundary barrier layer ceramic capacitors than in other ceramic capacitors and great efforts should be made to prevent hydrogen-induced degradation in them. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.