Characterization techniques employed in the study of niobium and tantalum-containing materials

Interface stoichiometry and structure in anodic niobium pentoxide

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) were performed on electrochemically anodized niobium and niobium oxide. Sintered anodes of Nb and NbO powders were anodized in 0.1 wt% H3PO4 at 10, 20, and 65 V to form surface Nb2O5 layers with an average anodization constant of 3.6+/-0.2 nm/V. The anode/dielectric interfaces were continuous and the dielectric layers were amorphous except for occurrences of plate-like, orthorhombic pentoxide crystallites in both anodes formed at 65 V. Using EELS stoichiometry quantification and relative chemical shifts of the Nb M4,5 ionization edge, a suboxide transition layer at the amorphous pentoxide interface on the order of 5 nm was detected in the Nb anodes, whereas no interfacial suboxide layers were detected in the NbO anodes.

93Nb NMR chemical shift scale for niobia systems

93Nb solid-state NMR spectra of a series of inorganic niobates with Nb in different oxygen coordination environments were measured. For all studied compounds the chemical shielding and quadrupole tensor parameters were determined using conventional and ultrahigh field NMR facilities, ultrahigh speed MAS, DQ STMAS, solid-echo and computer modeling. It has been demonstrated that the 93Nb isotropic chemical shift is sensitive to the coordination number of Nb sites. For the first time the 93Nb NMR chemical shift scale for NbOx polyhedra in solid materials has been proposed: for four-coordinated Nb sites, the isotropic shifts occur from -650 to -950 ppm; five-coordinated Nb sites have the isotropic shifts in the range of -900 to -980 ppm; for six-coordinated Nb sites the isotropic shifts vary from -900 to -1360 ppm; the shifts from -1200 to -1600 ppm are typical for seven-coordinated Nb sites; for eight-coordinated Nb sites the shifts are higher than -1400 ppm. The possible correlation between the value of the isotropic chemical shift and the ionic character of the NbOx-MOy polyhedra association has been suggested. The magnitude of the 93Nb quadrupole coupling constant depends on the local symmetry of Nb sites and may vary from hundreds of kHz to hundreds of MHz.