Synthesis of CaTiO 3 from calcium titanyl oxalate hexahydrate (CTO) as precursor employing microwave heating technique

Calcium titanate, CaTiO 3 , an important microwave dielectric material and one of major phases in synroc (synthetic rock), a titanate ceramic with potential application for fixation of high level nuclear waste was synthesized from calcium titanyl oxalate [CaTiO (C 2 O 4 ) 2 ·6H 2 O] (CTO) by employing microwave heating technique. CTO heated in microwave heating system in air at 500°C for 1 h gave a perovskite, CaTiO 3 . The product obtained by heating of CTO in the same system at 700°C for the same duration was however, much more crystalline. CaTiO 3 obtained by the present method was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and BET surface area measurement.