Phase equilibria, crystal chemistry, electronic structure and physical properties of Ag-Ba-Ge clathrates

Autor(en)
Isolde Zeiringer, Mingxing Chen, Ingeborg Bednar, Esmaeil Royanian, Ernst Bauer, Raimund Podloucky, Andrij Grytsiv, Peter Franz Rogl, Herta Silvia Effenberger
Abstrakt

In the Ag-Ba-Ge system the clathrate type-I solid solution, Ba8AgxGe46_x_yhy, extends at 800 °C from binary Ba8Ge43h3 (h is avacancy) to Ba8Ag5.3Ge40.7. For the clathrate phase (1 6 x 6 5.3) the cubic space group Pm_3n was established by X-ray powder diffraction and confirmed by X-ray single-crystal analyses of the samples Ba8Ag2.3Ge41.9h1.8 and Ba8Ag4.4Ge41.3h0.3. Increasing the concentration of Ag causes the lattice parameters of the solid solution to increase linearly from a value of a = 1.0656 (x = 0, y = 3) to a = 1.0842 (x = 4.8, y = 0) nm. Site preference determination using X-ray refinement reveals that Ag atoms preferentially occupy the6d site randomly mixed with Ge and vacancies, which become filled in the compound Ba8Ag4.8Ge41.2 when the Ag content increases. At 600 °C the phase region of the clathrate solution Ba8AgxGe46_x_yhy becomes separated from the Ba-Ge boundary and extends from6.6 to 9.8 at.% Ag. The compound Ba6Ge25 (clathrate type-IX) dissolves at 800 °C a maximum of 1.5 at.% Ag. The homogeneity regions of the two ternary compounds BaAg2_xGe2+x (ThCr2Si2-type, 0.2 6 x 6 0.7) and Ba(Ag1-xGex)2 (AlB2-type, 0.65 6 x 6 0.75) were established at 800 °C. Studies of transport properties for the series of Ba8AgxGe46_x_yhy compounds evidenced that electrons are the predominant charge carriers with the Fermi energy close to a gap. Its position can be fine-tuned by the substitution of Ge by Ag atoms and by mechanical processing of the starting material, Ba8Ge43. The proximity of the electronic structure at Fermi energy ofBa8AgxGe46_x_yhy to a gap is also corroborated by density functional theory calculations. This gap near the Fermi energy gives riseto distinct features of the temperature-dependent electrical resistivity and the Seebeck effect is in very good agreement with the experiment findings.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Institut für Mineralogie und Kristallographie
Externe Organisation(en)
Technische Universität Wien
Journal
Acta Materialia
Band
59
Seiten
2368-2384
Anzahl der Seiten
17
ISSN
1359-6454
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2010.12.033
Publikationsdatum
2011
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
104017 Physikalische Chemie, 105113 Kristallographie, 103018 Materialphysik
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/4bfed949-f7a0-4bc2-bb78-f3daaf5d2b76