Facile Preparation and Characterization of Nano-Crystalline SrTiO3

Strontium titanate (SrTiO3) nanocrystals have been synthesized, for the first time, through a facile method using SrC2O4·H2O-TiO2 precursor. DTA-TG techniques were used to follow the titanate formation process. XRD and FT-IR measurements were used to characterize the intermediate decomposition products as well as the titanate formation. XRD showed single-phase, crystalline, cubic perovskite with a lattice constant of 3.9017 Å. TEM image exhibited agglomerated cubic particles with size of about 70 nm. BET measurements, used to characterize the surface properties, revealed a surface area of 9.5 m2 g-1. The study of the electrical properties as a function of temperature and frequency exhibited semiconducting behavior with conduction activation energy of 0.45 eV. Kinetic analysis of non-isothermal TG curves, using three different computational integral methods revealed an activation energy value, for the titanate formation, of 240 kJ mol-1 according to the phase boundary controlled mechanism (R2).