“…Until recently little effort was directed at developing and using new types of precursors. Metal acetate, chloride, nitrate, lactate, citrate, and oxalate solutions were used extensively to produce a wide variety of materials (Akashi et al, 1967;Kanapilly et al, 1970;Suyama and Kato, 1982;Chess et al, 1983;Gardner and Messing, 1984;Imai et al, 1984;Kato and Hirata, 1985;Sproson et al, 1986;Ivers-Tiffee and Seitz, 1987;Seitz et al, 1987;Kodas et al, 1988Kodas et al, , 1989aPebler and Charles, 1988;Setaka et al, 1988;Dubois et al, 1989;Odier et al, 1989;Rossetti et al, 1989;Gadalla and Yu, 1990a, b;Pebler, 1990;Ortega et al, 1991). These precursors have the advantage of being inexpensive.…”