Perovskites synthesized by soft template-assisted hydrothermal method: A bibliometric analysis and new insights

Abstract

Hydrothermal synthesis is a technique which enables preparing many perovskites with specific crystal structures, chemical compositions, and morphologies. Thus, a bibliometric analysis of 1087 articles from the Scopus database (1975–2023) related to the keywords “perovskites” and “hydrothermal synthesis” was conducted using the VOSviewer software program. The results of the bibliometric analysis showed that the 1087 articles have 23,286 citations. Materials Letters has the highest number of publications (2.85%) regarding the journals in which these articles are published. China has the highest number of publications (34.50%) and citations (33.56%) related to these articles. Regarding the institutions affiliated with these articles, Jilin University in China concentrates 5.34% of the publications and 6.08% of the citations. In terms of authors, Han, G. has the highest number of publications (2.02%). Finally, the top three keywords with the highest number of occurrences were “perovskite”, “hydrothermal synthesis” and “scanning electron microscopy”. Based on bibliometric analysis, LaNiO3 perovskites were chosen to evaluate the influence of hydrothermal synthesis parameters on their morphologies and, consequently, how these morphologies affect their applications. Thus, the temperature and time ranges used for the synthesis parameters were 160–230 °C and 6–48 h, respectively. Furthermore, the pH range used was 7.6–13, and the mineralizers used to adjust the pH were ammonia, potassium hydroxide, and sodium hydroxide. The temperature and time ranges used for the calcination parameters were 550–800 °C and 2–6 h, respectively. Additionally, LaNiO3 perovskites obtained sphere, cube, rod, disc, and hollow morphologies. The soft templates used to obtain these morphologies were glycine, glycerin, isopropanol, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), citric acid, and urea. The specific surface areas of the perovskites varied between 5.2 and 35.8 m2 g−1. Finally, the most common application for LaNiO3 perovskites was the methane reforming for hydrogen production.