Synthesis and characterization of perovskite nanostructures

COLL 167

Yuanbing Mao, Department of Chemistry, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794, Sarbajit Banerjee, Department of Chemistry, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3400, and Stanislaus S. Wong, Department of Chemistry, SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794.
Ternary transition metal oxides, including barium titanate and strontium titanate, with a perovskite structure, are noteworthy for their exceptional dielectric, piezoelectric, electrostrictive, pyroelectric, and electro-optic properties. Understanding the behavior of ferroelectric materials at the nanoscale is of importance to the development of molecular electronics, in particular for random access memory and logic circuitry (FRAM).

A low-temperature hydrothermal reaction has been utilized to generate crystalline barium titanate and strontium titanate nanotubes. Single-crystalline perovskite nanostructures of reproducible shape have also been prepared using a simple, readily scaleable solid-state reaction in the presence of NaCl and a nonionic surfactant. Pristine barium titanate nanowires have diameters ranging from 50 to 80 nm with an aspect ratio larger than 25. Single-crystalline strontium titanate nanocubes with a mean edge length of 80 nm have been produced using a similar procedure. Extensive characterization of these nanostructures has been performed using SEM, TEM, HRTEM, EDS, and XRD.