Gelation by Acrylamide, a Quasi-Universal Medium for the Synthesis of Fine Oxide Powders for Electroceramic Applications

The synthesis of fine powders of electroceramic oxides (e.g., superconductors, dielectrics, and materials exhibiting colossal magnetoresistance) is most commonly carried out by solid-state reaction. Wet chemical methods, which overcome some disadvantages of the solid-state route, are often difficult to scale up. The improved acrylamide sol-gel process presented here is shown to be a fast, cheap, reproducible, and easily scaled-up route to fine oxide powders. The synthesis of La2CuNiO6, which cannot be obtained by solid-state reaction at ambient pressure, demonstrates the potential of this method in the search for new materials.