ISSN:
1551-2916
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
,
Physics
Notes:
The composition Zn2.33Sb0.67O4 (or Zn7Sb2O12) exists in two polymorphic forms. The thermodynamically stable, low-temperature orthorhombic β form transforms to the high-temperature cubic α-polymorph with a spinel structure at 1225°±25°C. The transformation is fully reversible but slower in the α→β direction and therefore, it is easy to preserve the high-temperature α-polymorph to lower temperatures where it is kinetically stable but thermodynamically metastable. It is also possible to synthesize the α-polymorph directly at low temperatures, e.g., 900°C. This synthesis, of a phase that is thermodynamically stable only at high temperatures, but which has sufficient kinetic stability to exist metastably at low temperatures, represents an example of Ostwald's law of successive reactions in which the first phase to crystallize from a reaction mixture is not necessarily the equilibrium phase of lowest free energy. The crystal structure of the α-polymorph has been confirmed by Rietveld refinement of X-ray powder diffraction data to be an inverse spinel, (Zn)[Sb2/3Zn4/3]O4, in which octahedral sites contain a disordered, random mixture of Zn and Sb and tetrahedral sites are fully occupied by Zn.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-2916.2005.00047.x
