Structure and Morphology Properties of Nanosized La_0.75K_0.05Ba_0.05Sr_0.15MnO₃ Manganite

Abstract

Nanosized La0.75K0.05Ba0.05Sr0.15MnO3 manganite have been synthesized using sol-gel method. Afterwards, the samples were sintered at eight different temperature ranging from 650 to 1000 °C. Phase purity, crystal structure and the morphology of the sample have been examined using X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope. It has been found that different higher sintering temperature greatly affect the phase purity and crystallite size of the sample. Regardless of the sintering temperature, all the samples crystallized in rhombohedral structure with R-3c space group. The crystallite size of the samples is found to increase from 41.59 nm up to 73.42 nm as the sintering temperature increases. Further analysis from XRD result shows that sintering temperature also affect the average Mn-O bond length and Mn-O-Mn bond angle of the sample. The average Mn-O bond length is found to increase while the average Mn-O-Mn bond angle tends to decrease as sintering temperature increases. SEM measurement shows that various grain size ranging from ~100 nm up to ~ 350 nm exists in all the sample regardless the sintering temperature.