A Co-precipitation Technique of Preparing LaNbO4Powders

Abstract

A simple co-precipitation technique was successfully used for the preparation of pure ultra fine, single-phase LaNbO 4 (LN). Aqueous sodium hydroxide was used to precipitate La 3+ and Nb 5+ cations as hydroxides simultaneously under basic conditions. For comparison, LN powders were also prepared by the traditional solid-state method. It is observed that the co-precipitation technique produces LaNbO 4 on heating at temperatures as low as ∼300°C, whereas complete phase formation occurs only at 900°C or higher in the solid-state method. The phase contents and lattice parameters were studied using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results show that phases obtained by both methods were different. The average particle size and morphology of these powders were analyzed by scanning electron microscope.