Morphological and FTIR Studies of Barium Oxalate Single Crystals

The conditions for the gel growth of barium oxalate single crystals in silica gels were studied in this paper. We describe the growth mechanism, effect concentration of feed solution, interchanging of the reactants, the effect of temperature and detailed study of microstructures of barium oxalate single crystals. At higher concentration of feed solution dense fibers were observed. With interchanged feed solution precipitate and spherulites have been obtained. The effect of temperature on growth barium oxalate crystals showed that there was a decrease in nucleation density at higher temperature. The crystals growth were observed under the electron microscope which revealed that the crystal have needle and spherulites structures. We also report the FTIR studies of barium oxalate crystals.

Thermal Conductivity of Gel-Grown Barium Oxalate at 326 and 335 K

Single crystals of barium oxalate have been grown by gel method using agar-agar gel as media of growth at ambient temperature. The grown crystal crystallizes under monoclinic structure. Thermal conductivity of gel-grown barium oxalate crystals as a function of temperature has been studied at 326 and 335 K by using divided bar method. The thermal conductivity of barium oxalate crystal at 326 K was found 3.685 W m−1 K−1 and 3.133 W m−1 K−1 at 335 K. The reduction of thermal conductivity with the rise in temperature may be due to reduction in mean free path of phonons in the solid.