Low‐Temperature Synthesis of NaNbO 3 Nanopowders and their Thin Films from a Novel Carbon‐Free Precursor

We have demonstrated a synthetic procedure for nano‐sized NaNbO 3 powder and its thin films using a carbon‐free precursor prepared by the reaction of H 2 O 2 with sodium and niobium alkoxides. A combination of X‐ray powder diffraction, Raman spectra, and thermal gravity and differential thermal analysis, carbon analysis, fourier transform infrared spectra, transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy was used to characterize the resulting materials and precursor compounds. Results show that this procedure demonstrates the major advantages of low‐temperature synthesis (∼400°C) and low weight loss during transformation into NaNbO 3 because of its carbon‐free nature, which also provides the option of preparing nano‐sized particles and dense, crack‐free NaNbO 3 thin films.