Thermochromism in Yttrium Iron Garnet Compounds

Thermally Induced Lattice-Defective Oxygen Breathing in Perovskite-Structure Stannates with High-Contrast Reversible Thermochromism

Inorganic thermochromic materials exhibit a tunable color gamut and a wide chromatic temperature range, indicating their potential for intelligent adaptive applications in thermal warning, temperature indication, thermal regulation, and interactive light-to-thermal energy conversion. However, most metal-oxide-based thermochromic materials show weak chromaticity adaption with the change of temperature, which needs further understanding of the microscopic principle to clarify the potential route to improve the contrast and identifiability for fabricating better thermochromic materials. Using perovskite-structure (AMO3) alkaline earth metal stannate (Ba1-xSrxSnO3, 0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) as a model system, this paper reports for the first time the mechanism of the properties of thermally induced defect-enhanced charge transfer-type (CTT) thermochromic materials and the strategy for regulating their thermochromic properties by A-site cations. BaSnO3 exhibits continuously reversible thermochromic properties with high contrast from weak light yellow (b* = 11) to strong bright yellow (b* = 58) between room temperature and 550 °C. In-situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction (in-situ XRD), in-situ UV-vis absorption spectroscopy (in-situ UV-vis), thermogravimetric (TG), and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra indicate that this excellent thermochromic phenomenon is attributed to the weakening of Sn-O bond hybridization at high temperatures, as well as the formation of a large number of oxygen vacancies at the top of the valence band, and the enhanced charge transfer resulting from the generation of impurity levels in the Sn2+ 5s2 intermediate. Replacing Ba2+ by Sr2+ in Ba1-xSrxSnO3 successfully tuned the thermochromic properties, which is attributed to the Sr2+ doping level-directed oxygen defect concentration and deoxygenation rate. The demonstrated defect-enhanced charge transfer behavior promotes a feasible route for lattice oxygen-mediated thermochromic materials and provides a fundamental relationship between thermally induced defects and colorimetry.

Thermochromic Behavior of Yttrium-Substituted Bismuth Oxides

High-temperature thermochromic materials are poorly explored in fundamental research, let alone applied research, although these materials may be used as low-cost, intuitively usable sensing materials in an industrial environment. Yet, only few of these materials have been described systematically. We describe a series of yttrium-substituted bismuth oxides (Bi_1-xY_x)₂O₃ (0.05 ≤ x ≤ 0.25) that show thermochromic behavior with a color change from yellow at low temperatures to various brown hues at high temperatures. The compounds were analyzed between 293 and 1050 K by X-ray powder diffraction, UV/vis spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. A combination of derived absorption spectral fitting and Tauc methods was applied to determine the band gap energies and band gap types from the diffuse UV/vis spectra, respectively. Two types of materials were found: one with x = 0.05 that exhibits the tetragonal β-phase at room temperature, and the defect fluorite-type cubic δ-phase at temperatures above 920 K. This phase showed a reversible, gradual color change upon heating, followed by an abrupt color change at the phase-transformation temperature. The second type of material had higher yttrium contents (x > 0.10); these samples were cubic at room temperature and showed a continuous color change upon heating and cooling. In contrast to the material with x = 0.05, these latter phases show a reduced cycle stability and were gradually annealed to the hexagonal phase-I. The samples with x = 0.10 provided a mixture of the β- and δ-phases, showing both, the reversible behavior for the β- to δ-phase transition and the irreversible behavior concerning the β₂-phase. This points the way toward smart materials that can not only sense the actual thermal stress but also monitor cumulative thermal stresses over a certain material lifetime.

Reversible Thermochromism of Nickel(II) Complexes and Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Transformation

A molecular Ni(II)-NNN pincer complex (1) exhibited unprecedented reversible single-crystal-to-single-crystal transformation and color change upon heating and cooling due to a subtle change in the N-Ni(II) bond length and ligand conformation. UV-vis, thermogravimetric, differential scanning calorimetry, single-crystal structural data, temperature-dependent powder X-ray diffraction, and Raman and computational studies supported the structural change of the Ni(II) complex with temperature.

Hydrothermal synthesis and structure determination of a new calcium iron ruthenium hydrogarnet

A new calcium iron ruthenium hydrogarnet with the approximate composition Ca3(Ru2− x Fe x )(FeO4)2− y (H4O4)1+ y (x=1, y≈0.35) has been obtained by hydrothermal synthesis under oxidizing alkaline conditions. The compound crystallizes in the cubic space group Ia3̅d (No. 230) with a lattice parameter of a=12.4804(4) Å (T=100 K) and Z=8. The octahedral site of the garnet structure is equally occupied by Ru and Fe, whereas the tetrahedral site is partially occupied by Fe only. A partial substitution of the oxide anions by hydroxide ions is necessary for charge balancing, corresponding to the so-called hydrogarnet defects. The presence of hydroxide groups is proven by infrared spectroscopy. 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopic data provide evidence for two different Fe3+ coordination environments as well as a magnetic ordering of two iron substructures with the respective ordering temperature above room temperature. The crystal composition was verified by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and the thermal behavior of the calcium iron ruthenate was studied by difference thermal analysis.

Simultaneous imaging of magnetic field and temperature distributions by magneto optical indicator microscopy

We report a simultaneous imaging method of the temperature and the magnetic field distributions based on the magneto optical indicator microscopy. The present method utilizes an optical indicator composed of a bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet thin film, and visualizes the magnetic field and temperature distributions through the magneto-optical effect and the temperature dependent optical absorption of the garnet thin film. By using a printed circuit board that carries an electric current as a device under test, we showed that the present method can visualize the magnetic field and temperature distribution simultaneously with a comparable temperature sensitivity (0.2 K) to that of existing conventional thermal imagers. The present technique provides a practical way to get a high resolution magnetic and thermal image at the same time, which is valuable in investigating how thermal variation results in a change of the operation state of a micrometer sized electronic device or material.

Ferrimagnetic Cage Framework in Ca12Fe10Si4O32Cl6

The positively charged cage framework of the natural mineral mayenite, which enables various species with negative charge to be stabilized, is one of the key structures to provide the new functionalities exploited in applications. Here we report the structural and magnetic properties of recently found eltyubyuite, Ca₁₂Fe₁₀Si₄O₃₂Cl₆, which is the first compound bearing a transition metal oxide as a main constituent in the mayenite-type structure. From neutron powder diffraction measurements at T = 20 K and the low temperature Mössbauer measurement, we determined the magnetic structure of eltyubyuite to be a ferrimagnet with oppositely aligned magnetic moments of +3.17(3) and -3.05(8) μ_B in two tetrahedral Fe sites with different oxygen ligands, all bridging oxygens or mixed bridging and nonbridging oxygens. As far as is known, this result is likely to be a first example showing ferrimagnetism stemming from only tetrahedral Fe³⁺ ions. The reduced magnetic moment per Fe³⁺ and the resultant small net moment per unit cell of 22 μ_B at μ₀H = 5 T and T = 15 K are attributed to strong covalency in much shorter Fe-O bonds in the FeO₄ tetrahedra.

Size-dependent optical and thermochromic properties of Sm3Fe5O12

Reversible thermochromic inorganic materials of Sm₃Fe₅O₁₂with different particle sizes have been synthesized by a conventional high temperature solid state reaction method (2.51 μm) and sol–gel method (0.16 μm).

Mössbauer Spectral Properties of Yttrium Iron Garnet, Y3Fe5O12, and Its Isovalent and Nonisovalent Yttrium-Substituted Solid Solutions

Several high-resolution Mössbauer spectra of yttrium iron garnet, Y3Fe5O12, have been fit as a function of temperature with a new model based on a detailed analysis of the spectral changes that result from a reduction from the cubic Ia3̅d space group to the trigonal R3̅ space group. These spectral fits indicate that the magnetic sextet arising from the 16a site in cubic symmetry is subdivided into three sextets arising from the 6f, the 3d, 3d, and the 1a, 1b, 2c sites in rhombohedral-axis trigonal symmetry. The 24d site in cubic Ia3̅d symmetry is subdivided into four sextets arising from four different 6f sites in R3̅ rhombohedral-axis trigonal symmetry, sites that differ only by the angles between the principal axis of the electric field gradient tensor and the magnetic hyperfine field assumed to be parallel with the magnetic easy axis. This analysis, when applied to the potential nuclear waste storage compounds Y(3-x)Ca(0.5x)Th(0.5x)Fe5O12 and Y(3-x)Ca(0.5x)Ce(0.5x)Fe5O12, indicates virtually no perturbation of the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties upon substitution of small amounts of calcium(II) and thorium(IV) or cerium(IV) onto the yttrium(III) 24c site as compared with Y3Fe5O12. The observed broadening of the four different 6f sites derived from the 24d site results from the substitution of yttrium(III) with calcium(II) and thorium(IV) or cerium(IV) cations on the next-nearest neighbor 24c site. In contrast, the same analysis applied to Y(2.8)Ce(0.2)Fe5O12 indicates a local perturbation of the magnetic exchange pathways as a result of the presence of cerium(IV) in the 24c next-nearest neighbor site of the iron(III) 24d site.

In Situ Encapsulation of Ultrasmall CuO Quantum Dots with Controlled Band-Gap and Reversible Thermochromism

Silica encapsulated ultrasmall CuO quantum dots (QDs; CuO@SiO2) were synthesized by reverse microemulsion. The CuO QDs with sizes ranging from 2.0 to 1.0 nm with corresponding band gaps of 1.4 to 2.6 eV were prepared simply by varying the concentration of the Cu(2+) precursor. The samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV-vis spectroscopy. The CuO@SiO2 composite displayed reversible thermochromism which resulted from the strong electron-phonon coupling of ultrasmall CuO in the confined space of SiO2 and the enhanced band-gap shift in the visible light region depending on temperature. Besides, the as synthesized CuO@SiO2 was found to be highly stable for reversible thermochromism due to the micropore structure of silica matrix and local confinement of the QDs.