In the present work a niobium based complex cubic perovskite oxide Ca₂AlNbO₆ ceramic was produced, characterized and studied its stability in crude petroleum environment for inert ceramic embedding for temperature sensors used in petroleum extraction. Ca₂AlNbO₆ ceramic powder was prepared through thermo-mechanical processing. Structural characteristics of calcined material was investigated by powder X-ray diffarctometry, which presented a single phase complex cubic perovskite structure with lattice parameter a = 7.6599 Å. Compacted discs of Ca₂AlNbO₆ ceramics were sintered in the temperature range 1250°C - 1350°C during 24 hours in ambient atmosphere. Microstructure of the sintered ceramics was studied by scanning electron microscopy and mechanical behavior was studied by Vicker’s microhardness testing. Ca₂AlNbO₆ ceramics sintered at 1350°C presented best results in terms of microstructural homogeneity and mechanical hardness. Therefore these sintered ceramics were submerged in crude petroleum for 60 days. Ceramics were taken out from the petroleum periodically and subjected to structural, microstructural and mechanical characterizations. Results showed that ceramics submerged in crude petroleum did not suffer any change at any stage of submersion. These characteristics make this material suitable for inert ceramic embedding for sensors used in petroleum extraction

In the present work niobium based complex cubic perovskite oxide Ba 2 AlNbO 6 ceramics were produced, characterized and their stability in crude petroleum environment was studied for inert ceramic embedding used in petroleum extraction. Ba 2 AlNbO 6 ceramic powder was prepared by means of thermo-mechanical processing. Structural characteristics of calcined material were investigated by powder X -ray diffractometry, which presented a single phase complex cubic perovskite structure with lattice parameter a = 8.3418 Å. Compacted Ba 2 AlNbO 6 ceramics were sintered at 1150ºC during 72 hours in ambient atmosphere. The microstructure of the sintered ceramics was studied by scanning electron microscopy and mechanical behavior was studied by Vicker's micro-hardness testing. The sintered ceramics were submerged in crude petroleum for 60 days. The ceramics were taken out from petroleum periodically and subjected to structural, microstructural and mechanical characterizations. The results showed that the ceramics submerged in crude petroleum did not suffer any change at any stage of submersion. These characteristics make this material suitable for inert ceramic embedding for sensors used in petroleum extraction.