Synthesis of LiNbO₃ nanoparticles in a mesoporous matrix

• Anett Grigas and
• Stefan Kaskel

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2011, 2, 28–33, doi:10.3762/bjnano.2.3

• impregnation from the metal precursor and mesoporous silica SBA-15 as the template. A rapid one-step treatment in an IR furnace reduces the preparation time to only 10 min. In comparison, a conventional furnace requires 5 h reaction time to produce nanoparticles with similar textural properties. Another

• present work, we investigated a rapid and efficient one-step route for the direct IR-accelerated synthesis of LiNbO3 nanopowders using an ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15 as the template, in combination with an IR furnace for the crystallization. The matrix stabilizes the nanoparticles against sintering

• crystallites in the template was minimized. The determination of particle size, as calculated from the Scherrer equation, leads to a value of about 10 nm which corresponds well with the pore diameter of the ordered mesoporous silica SBA-15 (10.5 nm in diameter), verifying that the mesoporous silica is a useful