Soft-chemistry synthesis of LiNbO3 crystallites

Lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) crystallites were successfully synthesized by soft-chemistry synthesis methods of sol–gel and hydrothermal process, respectively. It has been found that pure LiNbO3 powders could be prepared at about 600 and 240 °C by sol–gel and hydrothermal routes, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectra (IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were used to further investigate the quality of the obtained LiNbO3 powders by both synthesis routes. The present work shows that the hydrothermal method is superior to the sol–gel method since it may facilely obtain high purity, better crystallinity and uniform morphology lithium niobate powders.