A co-precipitation technique to prepare CaNb2O6

Abstract A mixture of ammonium oxalate and ammonium hydroxide was used to co-precipitate calcium and niobium ions as calcium oxalate and niobium hydroxide under basic conditions. This precursor yielded CaNb 2 O 6 (CN) ceramics on calcining at 750 °C, i.e. at a temperature much lower than 900 °C, reported for the formation of CaNb 2 O 6 prepared by the traditional solid state method. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) investigations revealed an average particle size 100 nm for the calcined powders. The room temperature dielectric constant at 1 kHz was found to be 100. The ferroelectric hysteresis loop parameters of these samples were also studied.