A novel diol based metalorganic route has been developed and employed to deposit BaTiO3films on Si and Pt coated Si substrates. Differential thermal analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and x‐ray diffraction collectively indicated that BaTiO3was formed through the reaction of Ba and Ti oxides at approximately 500 °C. The films were single phase, had no crystallographic texture, and contained no detectable impurities. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.