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Z. Naturforsch. 2014, 69b, 761 – 766
doi:10.5560/ZNB.2014-4065
Rapid Microwave Synthesis and Structural Phase Diagram of LnxY1−xMnO3
Fred P. Marlton1, Darren J. Goossens1, Reyner White1, and Wayne D. Hutchison2
1 Research School of Chemistry, The Australia National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
2 School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Canberra 2600, Australia
Reprint requests to Dr. Darren Goossens. E-mail: goossens@rsc.anu.edu.au
Received March 18, 2014 / published online July 8, 2014
YMnO3 is one of the primary examples of a multiferroic ceramic. We present a novel solid-state microwave sintering method for making high-purity ceramic samples of YMnO3 and related compounds in a few hours. This leads to determination of the structural phase diagram for the formation of single-phase, hexagonal samples when doping lanthanides into YMnO3. It is found that the solid-state microwave synthesis allows manufacture of high-quality samples in hours rather than days. The resulting phase diagram accords well with results from the literature, and from calculations based on the Goldschmidt tolerance factor for the stability of perovskite structures, suggesting that the transformation from hexagonal to perovskite with doping is driven essentially by ion sizes. Some results concerning the microwave synthesis of BaLnInO4 compounds, where Ln is a lanthanide, are noted. Microwave sintering of BaNdInO4 yields single-phase samples where conventional sintering does not.
Key words: Yttrium Manganate, Phase Diagram, BaLnInO4, YMnO3, Microwave Synthesis
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