Microwave-Assisted Hydrothermal Synthesis as a Rapid Route Towards Manganite Preparation

In this work attempts to prepare strontium-doped lanthanum manganites La1-xSrxMnO3 using microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis were undertaken from a mixture of lanthanum nitrate, strontium nitrate, manganese(II) nitrate, potassium permanganate and potassium hydroxide as a mineralizer. For x = 0.3, and x = 0.5, the perovskite obtained is not defined since both La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 and La0.5Sr0.5MnO3 phases are consistent with XRD spectra. While with x = 1.0, for the first time, hexagonal strontium manganite was prepared as blade-shaped crystallites with a narrow particle length distribution (range 3.75-7.75 μm) at 210°C using a treatment time of only 1 hour. Conventional hydrothermal synthetic routes require at least 24 hrs treatment time.