Molten salt synthesis of acicular sodium strontium niobate particles

Acicular particles of Na0.5Sr0.25NbO3 and NaSr2Nb5O15 were successfully synthesized in the KSr2Nb5O15 + NaCl system and SrCO3 + Nb2O5 + NaCl + KCl system, respectively. It was found that the anisometric particles could not be obtained in the SrCO3 + Nb2O5 + NaCl system. A facile ion-exchange approach was utilized to prepare acicular Na0.5Sr0.25NbO3 particles. Acicular NaSr2Nb5O15 particles with large aspect ratio could be obtained at the weight ratio of salt-to-mixture of 5:1, which were ideal template for fabricating textured ceramics. The growth process was researched and the synthesis method was suggested to be a self-precursor templating route. The results will be propitious to guide the fabrication of other templates with anisotropic morphology which were hard to prepare directly.