Crystal Engineering of Nanomorphology for Complex Oxide Materials via Thermal Decomposition of Metal−Organic Frameworks. Case Study of Sodium Tantalate

Application of different solvating ligands drastically changes the composition and geometry of bimetallic sodium−tantalum pinacolates, forming insoluble and stable organic−inorganic hybrid materials through Van der Waals interactions. The loss of these neutral ligands on heating leads to contraction and densification of the structures, with formation of covalent metal−organic frameworks (MOFs) as intermediates, and resulting in direction-specific cracking and formation, on further thermal decomposition, of low-dimensional nanomorphologieswires or plates of the same oxide material, containing well-crystalline monoclinic NaTaO3 as its major component. The crystallographic features of the precursor structures permitting us to control further morphological differentiation on the transformation to oxide material are identified.