Tin (II) oxide has been proposed as potential anode material in lithium rechargeable batteries. Different methods to obtain such compound have been developed with relative difficulty due to the fact that Sn(II) is easily oxidized to Sn(IV). We have applied a different methodology to synthesize SnO-romarchite by modifying the solvent nature of the controlled precipitation route using acetic acid and not water. Although the formation of Sn(IV) oxide could not be completely avoided, X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the synthesis of metastable tin(II) oxide as major phase at room temperature. In depth analysis using Popa's model for Rietveld refinement allows to precise that the material corresponds to small and distorted crystallites, very anisotropic in size. SEM technique confirmed the microstructure is build of flower-like agglomerates of ~15 µm, in turn made of plate-like individual grains that remind the crystallite structure anisotropy.

Zinc oxide, ZnO, is a very interesting compound in science and electronic ceramics technology. ZnO ceramics containing some additives were reported to show varistor action with excellent nonlinearity in current - voltage characteristics. However, investigations were restricted to the ZnO - Bi2O3 ceramic system. Other type of varistor, which contains praseodymium oxide, also present nonlinear behaviour. In this work, results obtained in the synthesis Zn-Pr-Co powder are shown. In order to determine and control the several stages of the chemical method, potentiometric titration was used. The solid phase obtained was pressed and sintered.