Co-precipitation technique for the preparation of nanocrystalline ferroelectric SrBi2Ta2O9

A simple co-precipitation technique had been successfully applied for the preparation of pure ultrafine single phase SrBi2Ta2O9. Ammonium hydroxide was used to precipitate Sr2+, Bi3+ and Ta5+ cations simultaneously. No pyrochlore phase was found while heating powder at 800 °C and pure SrBi2Ta2O9 phase was found to be formed by X-ray diffraction. Particle size and morphology was studied by scanning electron spectroscopy. Ferroelectric hysteresis loop parameters of these samples were also studied.