Size-Strain Analysis of Iron-Excess Mn-Zn Ferrite Nanoparticles Using Synchrotron Diffraction and Its Correlation with Magnetic Saturation and Isoelectric pH.

Iron-excess Mn-Zn ferrite nanoparticles were prepared by coprecipitation with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at different concentrations (0.1, 0.2, 0.5 and 1.0 mol/L). The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis using Whole Powder Pattern Modeling (WPPM) showed that higher concentrations of NaOH promote crystallite growth and broader dispersion in crystallite sizes. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy indicates that zinc loss is noticeable when [NaOH] ≥ 0.2 mol/L. XRD revealed also a significant less-crystalline phase contribution alongside the main peaks of the nanocrystalline cubic spinel ferrite phase. The less-crystalline fraction is lower for the ferrite obtained with 0.2 mol/L of NaOH, being about 50% and more than 70% for the other samples. Despite of the less-crystalline fraction and the excess of iron, no secondary phases were detected. The Warren curves showed that the concentration of NaOH significantly influences the microstrain in the crystallites, being smaller for the sample obtained with NaOH at 0.2 mol/L. The sample prepared with this condition presented the better properties to be used as magnetic tracer in clinical diagnoses combining small mean crystallite size, low microstrain, which resulted in materials with higher magnetic saturation and high surface charge under blood pH.

Insights into the Local Structure of Tb-Doped KY3F10 Nanoparticles from Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction.

Pure and Tb-doped nanocrystalline KY3F10 specimens were synthesized by coprecipitation, and portions of the samples underwent further heat treatment at 600 °C in a fluorinated atmosphere. Synchrotron X-ray diffraction patterns acquired at 30 keV allowed to determine both long- and short-range ordered structures by Rietveld and pair distribution function (PDF) analyses, respectively. PDF examination of the as-synthesized sample allowed to discern a slight deviation from the basic cubic building unit because the Y-F bond lengths could be explained in S.G. I4/mmm with cell parameters a = 8.1520(9) Å and c = 11.5876(29) Å, whereas Rietveld analysis could equally well fit both the cubic and tetragonal descriptions for the heat-treated specimens. Also, PDF revealed that the as-synthesized sample exhibited less structural coherence than the heat-treated one.

Arsenate incorporation in gypsum probed by neutron, X-ray scattering and density functional theory modeling.

The ability of gypsum, a common sulfate mineral, to host arsenic atoms in its crystalline structure, is demonstrated through experimental structural studies of the solid solutions formed upon synthetic coprecipitation of gypsum (CaSO4 x 2 H2O) and arsenic. Neutron and X-ray diffraction methods show an enlargement of the gypsum unit cell proportional to the concentration of arsenic in the solids and to the pH solution value. The substitution of sulfate ions (SO4(2-)) by arsenate ions is shown to be more likely under alkaline conditions, where the HAsO4(2-) species predominates. A theoretical Density Functional Theory model of the arsenic-doped gypsum structure reproduces the experimental volume expansion. Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) measurements of the local structure around the arsenic atom in the coprecipitated solids confirm solid state substitution and allow some refinement of the local structure, corroborating the theoretical structure found in the simulations. The charge redistribution within the structure upon substitutions of either the protonated or the unprotonated arsenate species studied by means of Mulliken Population Analyses demonstrates an increase in the covalency in the interaction between Ca(2+) and AsO4(3-), whereas the interaction between Ca(2+) and HAsO4(2-) remains predominantly ionic.

Location of H+ sites in the fast proton-conductor (H3O)SbTeO6 pyrochlore.

The defect pyrochlore (H3O)SbTeO6 oxide is an excellent proton conductor, showing a conductivity value of 10(-1) S cm(-1) at 30 degrees C under saturated water vapor partial pressure. It can be prepared by ion exchange from KTeSbO6 pyrochlore in sulfuric acid at 453 K for 12 h. The full characterization of the structure of the (H3O)SbTeO6 pyrochlore, including the location of the H3O+ units within the three-dimensional framework, has been carried out by neutron powder diffraction. A first Rietveld refinement of the [SbTeO6]- framework was performed in the Fd3m space group (a= 10.1510(1) A); a difference Fourier map enabled the unambiguous location of the O2 atoms from the H3O+ ions at 32e (x,x,x) positions, and subsequently the H atoms at 96g (x,x,z). The (H3O)SbTeO6 crystal structure is constituted by a network of randomly distributed Sb(V)O6 and Te(VI)O6 octahedra linked by their corners with (Sb,Te)-O1-(Sb,Te) angles of 136.2 degrees. Hydronium ions are located off-center around the large 8a cages of the pyrochlore. The geometry of the (O2)-H3 units is that of an almost regular tetrahedron, with O2 atoms at the center and the three H atoms in three of the vertices; the fourth vertex is supposed to be occupied by the O2 lone pair. The three O2-H bonds have equal distances of 1.020(8)A. The H3O+ units are linked to the O1 framework oxygens by weaker hydrogen bonds, with O1-H bond lengths of 1.649(7) A. The relatively large thermal factors of O2 and H, of 2.5 and 3.7 A2, respectively, suggest that both kinds of atoms are not static at fixed positions but could be dynamically fluctuating between crystallographically equivalent sites.