Defect Interactions in Partially Ionic Nonstoichiometric Oxides: A Monte Carlo Investigation.

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DEFECT INTERACTIONS IN PARTIALLY IONIC NONSTOICHIOMETRIC OXIDES: A MONTE CARLO INVESTIGATION. C.MASSOBRIO*, O.MASMOUDI

R.TETOT*, B.NACER*,

* Composds Non Stoechiomdtriques,

and G.BOUREAU

Universit6 Paris-Sud,

91405 Orsay Cedex

(France) **Chimie Physique,

Universit6 Paris VI,

11 rue Pierre et Marie Curie,

75231

Paris Cedex 05 (France) ABSTRACT. We investigate

the

nature

of

the

interactions

between

defects

in

partially nonstoichiometric oxides and their r6le on some thermodynamic and transport properties.

INTRODUCTION In this study, we present an appropriate statistical treatment allowing us to calculate the interaction energies between defects in partially ionic nonstoichiometric oxides from experimental thermodynamic measurements. We show that these interactions may be used to qualitatively explain electronic conductivity. Because of its status of model system for Plutonium dioxide,

a large

amount of experimental data are available for cerium dioxide CeO2 -x (ceria) which is taken as an example in this study. Similar studies are in progress for cubic oxides

such as Co I_x a

large

domain

of

CeO 2 -x

has a fluorite

nonstoichiometry

(0 U 0

0,0

0,1

0.2 X in CeO2O•

0,3 X in CoO

0,2 -X

0.3

Fig 2. Conductivity and mobility at 1000 0 C as a function of nonstoichiometry Experimental results are from [7] for a and from [1] for p

527

and the decrease of p with increasing x.

As analyzed

in ref 1,

this is

probably due to the appearence of a high degree of short range order when x increases, which induces trapping of some of the carriers. The simplest model consists of taking EH constant with x, which is equivalent to consider total disorder of the defects (limit T-)a). In this case, a varies as 2x(1-2x) and p as (1-2x). Therefore, the saturation of a appears at x=0.25 and p is

a linear function of x (see Fig 2).

Obviously

this model does not account for the experimental features. In our model, which is a preliminary one, we assume that the activation energy of

hopping of

location,

therefore

(E1 ) depends

a given polaron

on

its

H

potential

energy.

EiH = E0H _

iIx

only on

Following

its

initial

this

simple

assumption, we may write:

E0

where

HI

is

the

activation

energy

in

complete

disorder

and

E

the

interaction energy of the polaron i with the surrounding charges. In the first part of this study, we have calculated some interaction parameters which allows to estimate the interaction energy of any site of an equilibrium configuration obtained by Monte Carlo simulation for any value of x.

It

is

clear

that

these parameters

do not

permit

to treat

in

a

satisfactory way the vacancy-vacancy interactions because we consider only a repulsion between nearest neighbors. Nevertheless, distribution functions

the calculation of radial

[8] shows that the repartion of the electrons among

the cerium sites depends only slightly on the interaction between oxygen vacancies.

The most important parameters for our purpose are the electron

vacancy interaction a