Study of Na substitution in LaBaMnO perovskites.

The effect of Na substitution on nominal LaBaNaMnO (0≤ x≤0.33) manganites is studied in this work. Detailed chemical and structural analyses on ceramic samples obtained at 1200 C show that a significantly lower Na rate than the nominal one is obtained due to important Na losses during the synthesis. The losses of Na result in the appearance of impurity phases for high nominal Na rates in addition to the manganite phase with a rhombohedral $R\bar{3}c$ structure. Structural and physical properties of the samples can be properly interpreted according to the variation of the Mn/Mn ratio and the average ionic radius of A-site when the experimental composition of the manganite is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]