High Pressure and Chemical Bonding in Materials Chemistry
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High Pressure and Chemical Bonding in Materials Chemistry G´erard Demazeau Universit´e Bordeaux 1, Sciences and Technologies, 351 cours de la Lib´eration, F-33405 Talence Cedex, France ICMCB- (UPR CNRS 9048), 87 Avenue du Dr A. Schweitzer, F-33608 Pessac Cedex, France Reprint requests to Prof. G. Demazeau. E-mail: [email protected] Z. Naturforsch. 61b, 799 – 807 (2006); received February 9, 2006 Dedicated to Professor Wolfgang Jeitschko on the occasion of his 70th birthday Materials chemistry under high pressures is an important research area opening new routes for stabilizing novel materials or original structures with different compositions (oxides, oxoborates, nitrides, nitridophosphates, sulfides,...). Due to the varieties of chemical compositions and structures involved, high pressure technology is also an important tool for improving the investigations on chemical bonding and consequently the induced physico-chemical properties. Two different approaches can be described: (i) the chemical bond is pre-existing and in such a case, high pressures lead to structural transformations, (ii) the chemical bond does not exist and high pres- sures are able to help the synthesis of novel materials. In both cases the condensation effect (∆V < 0 between precursors and the final product) is the general rule. In addition, through the improvement of the reactivity, high pressures can lead to materials that are not reachable through other chemical routes. Key words: Materials Chemistry, High Pressure Synthesis, Structural Transformations, Novel Materials, Chemical Bonding Introduction Table 1. Energy added by compression versus the nature of the medium compared to the average energy of a chemical A chemical bond can be characterized by different reaction [R. H. Wentorf, Jr. Chemical Engineering, Oct. 16, factors: p. 177 – 186 (1961)]. (i) The involved atoms, versus their position in the Pressure (bar) Medium Energy cal/mol Periodic Table, inducing some specific atomic proper- 1000 gas 3000 ... 1000 solid 1 ties: electronegativity, ionization potential and con- 10 000 solid 5 sequently the distribution of bonding electrons (lead- 100 000 iron 20 ing to ionic, covalent, metallic character). 100 000 H2O 1000 (ii) Its strength induced by the overlap of the cor- 1 chemical reaction 20 000 responding orbitals and directly dependent on the in- teratomic distance, such a distance being correlated, in (i) the chemical bond exists in the involved particular: with (a) the size of the corresponding atoms, material-keeping the same chemical composition – and (b) the structure of the material (inducing the coordi- consequently high pressures can, through a structural nation number), (c) the formal oxidation state of the transformation, modify such a bond, involved cation... (ii) the chemical bond does not exist and, in such a case, high pressure can be developed for bonding The energy of the resulting chemical bond is depen- atoms, leading to the synthesis of novel materials. dent on both factors. If we compare this energy to that conveyed by high pressures, it appears that pressure is Structural Transformations under High Pressures a soft thermodynamical parameter, in particular when the liquid or solid phases are concerned (Table 1). The general factor characterizing a structural trans- Two different approaches can be analyzed: formation (from two different structural forms: F 1 to 0932–0776 / 06 / 0700–0799 $ 06.00 c 2006 Verlag der Zeitschrift f¨ur Naturforschung, T¨ubingen · http://znaturforsch.com 800 G. Demazeau · High Pressure and Chemical Bonding in Materials Chemistry Fig. 1. Structural evolution vs. pressure for some ABO3 polytypes [3]. F2) under high pressures for a material with a constant composition (F: corresponding to a specific structural form) is the densification effect (negative ∆V value), if V V ∆V = 1 − 2 . Z Z 1 F1 2 F2 Such a structural transformation (F1 → F2) can be initiated by different factors: electrostatic and/or steric interactions induced through the compression of the chemical bond. A structural transformation (F1 → F2) can lead to different structural phenomena: • the removal of the charged atoms (cations or Fig. 2. Variation of the volume for a unit Li2MF6 versus sometime anions), r3(M4+) (r being the ionic radius) [4]. • the increase of the coordination number for the ( 4+ ) ( + ) most charged atoms. common edges between M F6 and Li F6 octa- hedra decreases with the M4+ size or under high pres- 4+ Structural transformations associated with electro- sures for a constant M cation (Fig. 2) [4]. static interactions Binary oxides MO2 at normal pressure, involving highly electropositive transition metals, are ionic and The most illustrative example is the sequence of adopt 3D structures such as the rutile structure in order − structural forms for the hexagonal perovskites ABX 3 to minimize the electrostatic repulsion between O2 from the 2H structure to the cubic 3C ones (Fig. 1) anions. For example, TiO2 adopts only the 3D rutile [1 – 3]. structure due to the large electronegativity difference + In such a case, the coordination number of the B n between Ti and O (1.54 and 3.44, respectively). On most charged cations remains constant (VI), the elec- the contrary PtO – due to the smaller electronega- + + 2 trostatic repulsions Bn Bn inducing the transition tivity difference between Pt and O (2.28 and 3.44, re- from face sharing octahedra (BX6) to corner sharing spectively) – can adopt at ambient pressure the layered n+ n+ ones. Consequently the B B √distance is increased CdI2-type structure (α-PtO2) [5]. Under high pres- from a d value to approximately d 2 reducing electro- sure conditions – due to the enhancement of the elec- static repulsions. With the increase of the pressure the trostatic repulsion – the α-PtO2 (CdI2-type) is trans- number of corner sharing (BX6) octahedra increases. formed to the rutile form (β-PtO2) [6]. First principles 4+ 4+ For the Li2M F6 fluorides (M = Ge, Ti, Zr), electronic calculations have recently confirmed the rel- structural transformations are induced by both steric ative stabilities of the rutile and CdI2 structural types and electrostatic interactions. The M4+ M4+ distance versus the metal-oxygen and oxygen-oxygen orbital, remains approximately constant but the number of interactions [7]. G. Demazeau · High Pressure and Chemical Bonding in Materials Chemistry 801 For the binary oxides characterized at normal pres- structure of SrCuO2 (characterized by double Cu-O sure by the rutile structure, under high pressures a chains) can be transformed to a 2D-structure (with ◦ competition is observed between the fluorite struc- CuO2 sheets) at 3 GPa and 900 C [19]. ¯ ) ture (CaF2-type, space group Fm3m and the pyrite The high-pressure behaviour of the GdFeO 3-type ¯). structure (FeS2-type, space group Pa 3 The transition orthorhombic perovskites (ABO3) – in particular the → rutile fluorite is observed for TiO2 [8], ZrO2 [9] or tilting of the (BO6) octahedra – has recently been ex- HfO2 [10]. On the other hand, the transition rutile → plained in terms of relative compressibilities of the pyrite is induced for GeO2 [11], SnO2 [12], PbO2 [13] (BO6) and (AO12) polyhedra. If the (BO6) octahedra and RuO2 [13]. are less compressible than the (AO12) dodecahedra the The main difference between both structural types structural distortion is increased under high pressures. being the positions of the oxygen atoms, consequently In the opposite case, if the (BO6) octahedra are more electrostatic interactions induced under high pressures compressible than the (AO12) polyhedra; the struc- appear to play a key role. tural distortion is decreased. A bond-valence concept Another interesting high pressure transformation has recently been developed for explaining the rela- under high pressures is the transition observed for the tive compressibilities of the cationic sites in oxide per- K2MO3 oxides (M = Zr, Hf, Sn, Pb) from the prismatic ovskites [20]. K+ coordination to a pseudo-octahedral one in order to −δ −δ reduce the O -O electrostatic interactions [14]. Synthesis of Novel Materials Induced by Structural transformations are particularly interest- High Pressures ing when different chemical bonds are involved. As The syntheses helped by high pressures are also an example, binary alkaline earth subnitrides (AE) 2N (M = Ca, Sr, Ba) can be characterized by a unique com- governed by a so-called “densification effect”. In such ∆ bination of ionic and metallic bonding within the same a case, the negative value V characterizes the dif- crystal structure. Due to the formal description result- ference between the volume of the precursors and + → , ∆ = ing of the charge neutrality, such a structure can be that of the resulting materials [if A B AB V ( )2+ 3− · − (VA/ZA +VB/ZB) − (VAB/ZAB)]. described by the formula AE 2 -N e . The anti- CdCl2 structure type is built from two-dimensional Densification effects can play an important role in hexagonal double layers of AE 2+ atoms with nitro- phase diagrams; the formation of specific compositions gen atoms centering M6 octahedra within the lay- different than that observed at normal pressure can be ers [15]. Ionic bonding between (AE) 2+ and N3− holds induced. the (AE)2N layers together, metallic inter-layer bond- For example, in the Al2O3-B2O3 diagram, at nor- ing results from nearly-free remaining electrons. Un- mal pressure two compositions are observed: 9Al2O3- der high pressures – up to 40 GPa – different phase- 2B2O3 and 2Al2O3-B2O3; on the contrary at 4 GPa