In this Dalton Transactions Hot Article, which is part of an upcoming themed issue on “Contributions of Inorganic Chemistry to Energy Research” Rao et al. studied the effect of simultaneous substitutions of Ca and Nb or Ta in pyrochlore-type solid solutions using XRD, FT NIR Raman spectroscopic techniques and transmission electron microscopy. The substitutions lead to a more ordered phase being produced.
Recently, pyrochlore oxides have attracted a lot of attention. Their chemical and structural flexibility lead to a wide range of properites such as:
- superconductivity
- semi-conductivity
- ionic conductivity
- ferromagnetism
- luminescence
Oxide ion-conducting pyrochlores have found applications in solid oxide fuel cells as electrolytes and gas sensors. Within the last decade, the use of pyrochlore oxides for nuclear waste disposal has gained interest due to their high radiation resistance.
Read for free until 22nd March 2011 to find out more about these fascinating and versatile materials here.
Influence of disorder-to-order transition on lattice thermal expansion and oxide ion conductivity in (CaxGd1-x)2(Zr1-xMx)2O7 pyrochlore solid solutions
A. N. Radhakrishnan, P. Prabhakar Rao,* K. S. Mary Linsa, M. Deepa and Peter Koshy
Dalton Trans., 2011, Advance Article, 10.1039/c0dt01688h
