Low temperature synthesis of perovskite Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 by hydrothermally-derived precursor

Niobium precursor was prepared by chelation using Nb2O5 as raw material. Adding lead acetate [Pb(Ac)2] and nickel acetate [Ni(Ac)2], the mixed sol was hydrothermally treated. The hydrothermal-derived compounds were calcined and the pure-perovskite Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PNN) can be successfully produced. By X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), the influence of calcination temperature, hydrothermal treatment time and process routes on the formation of perovskite PNN were investigated. The results show that the hydrothermal-derived powders transforms into perovskite PNN after calcining at 900 °C. Especially changing the preparation route of precursors, we produced pure-phase PNN powder.