Morphology-controlled synthesis of barium titanate nanostructures.

This study reports the synthesis of morphology-controlled BaTiO(3) nanostructures such as spherical, cube-shaped and rod-shaped BaTiO(3) using a molten-salt synthesis method. This method synthesized products from a reaction of BaO/BaCO(3) and TiO(2) with a eutectic mixture of NaCl-KCl flux at 700 degrees C for 1 h. The experiment used powder X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy to investigate the structure and morphology of the products. Moreover, the current work also provides a proposed synthetic mechanism of BaTiO(3) in the molten salt to illustrate the in situ transformation mechanism of BaTiO(3) nanostructures in the reaction. The results of the study revealed that the initial shape of the titania and the dissolution rate of the initial precursors critically determine the shapes of the final products.