Synthesis, crystal structure and thermal decomposition study of a new barium acetato-propionate complex

The present study reports on a novel barium acetato-propionate complex, obtained by the reaction of barium acetate with propionic acid, used as an oxide precursor with applications in superconducting thin films deposition. The molecular structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction on single crystals and demonstrated to be [Ba7(CH3CH2COO)10(CH3COO)4·5H2O]. The barium acetato–propionate is a three-dimensional channel-type polymer. The thermal decomposition of the barium precursor has been studied by simultaneous differential thermal analysis-thermogravimetry–mass spectrometry (DTA-TG–MS) in air at a heating rate of 10 °C/min. Based on these analyses, infrared spectroscopy was further used to characterize the precursor solution by the step-wise addition of the reagents. The X-ray diffraction on the precursor powder at different temperatures was performed.