Preparation of Nanosized Strontium Titanate Powder by a Nitrilotriacetate Precipitation Method

A new method that nano-SrTiO3 electronic ceramics powder was prepared from nitrilotriacetic acid complexes by thermal decomposition was proposed. The reaction of Ti4+ and ta(3-)(H(3)ta=C6H6O6N) and H2O2 is occurred to form [Ti2O(O-2)(2)(ta)(2)](4-) complex ions, which react with Sr2+ to produce Sr-2[Ti2O(O-2)(2)(ta)(2)] precursor, and then is washed, dried and annealed at 900 degrees C for 3h to prepare nano SrTiO3 powder. The results of SEM analysis show that SrTiO3 powders were spheric shape with narrow size distribution and the mean particle sizes about 80 nm. XRD investigation show that the powders of SrTiO3 had the crystalline of the pseudo-cubic structure. The Sr/Ti mole ratio (1.000 +/- 0.005) and the purity of 99.8% were confirmed by chemical analysis. Compared with conventional thermal decomposition method of oxalate, the proposed new method, by which the high-quality SrTiO3 powder is prepared, shows simple technology.