A Two-Stage Solid-State Reaction to Lead Nickel Niobate Powders

This study investigates the synthesis of the perovskite phase of Pb(Ni1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PNN) powders through a rapid vibro-milling technique, utilizing both NiNb2O6 and Ni4Nb2O9 as nickel niobate precursors. The formation of the PNN phase was analyzed by employing Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques to evaluate the impact of various calcination conditions. Additionally, the morphology and phase composition of the synthesized powders were characterized through Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) techniques. The findings demonstrate that the choice of nickel niobate precursor and specific calcination conditions significantly influence the phase development and morphological characteristics of the PNN powders. Notably, the results reveal that optimizing the calcination parameters can yield a pure single-phase PNN product using both precursor methods; however, the formation temperature required for the single-phase PNN was found to be lower when using NiNb2O6 as a precursor. This research highlights the potential for improved synthesis methods for lead nickel niobate, which is essential for applications in ferroelectric materials.