Evidence of hetero-epitaxial growth of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 on the BaTiO3 seed particles of a citrate solution

Citrate solution was employed in preparing Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN) powder from polymeric precursors. BaTiO3 particles of 600 nm average size were used as seed for growing PMN. X-ray diffraction (XRD) indicated the presence of both, pyrochlore Pb6Nb6MgO22 (P6N) and perovskite phases. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations indicated that only the PMN phase has hetero-epitaxially grown on the BaTiO3 seed particles.