Molten salt synthesis of acicular sodium strontium niobate particles

Acicular particles of Na0.5Sr0.25NbO3 and NaSr2Nb5O15 were successfully synthesized in the KSr2Nb5O15 + NaCl system and SrCO3 + Nb2O5 + NaCl + KCl system, respectively. It was found that the anisometric particles could not be obtained in the SrCO3 + Nb2O5 + NaCl system. A facile ion-exchange approach was utilized to prepare acicular Na0.5Sr0.25NbO3 particles. Acicular NaSr2Nb5O15 particles with large aspect ratio could be obtained at the weight ratio of salt-to-mixture of 5:1, which were ideal template for fabricating textured ceramics. The growth process was researched and the synthesis method was suggested to be a self-precursor templating route. The results will be propitious to guide the fabrication of other templates with anisotropic morphology which were hard to prepare directly. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.