Phase transformation in the "Brodie graphite oxide-acetonitrile" system - influence of the oxidizing level of the material

Reversible phase transformation in the Brodie graphite oxide-acetonitrile system, which is intercalation or release of part of the sorbed liquid from the interplanar space accompanied by an increase or a decrease in interplanar distances, is commonly observed in twice-oxidized materials. We observed this phenomenon for once-, twice- and thrice-oxidized materials using the EPR spin probe technique, DSC, and temperature programmed XRD. It was shown that all materials under study formed similar low temperature (LT) and high temperature (HT) swollen structures with acetonitrile. The phase transformation of these structures is observed for materials with different oxidation levels in the same temperature range (∼20 K). The twice- and thrice-oxidized Brodie graphite oxides form swollen structures with the same parameters, while the once-oxidized material sorbs less acetonitrile at lower temperatures, but shows the same interplanar distances as those in twice- and thrice-oxidized materials. The spin probe technique has proven its sensitivity to the appearance of small amounts of the new forming swollen structures, which makes this method useful in studies of phase transformations.

DebyeFit: a simple tool to obtain an appropriate model of atomic vibrations in solids from atomic displacement parameters obtained at different temperatures

DebyeFit is a simple tool to calculate the Debye or Einstein characteristic temperature of thermal vibrations in crystals from the equivalent atomic displacement parameters (ADPs) of any atom obtained at several temperatures. The ADP values are separated into static and dynamic components to get a best fit to the Debye, Einstein or mixed model. The static term is added to account for possible static disorder. A nonlinear least-squares technique is used to refine the parameters of the model for sets of ADPs observed in multi-temperature structural studies. The program provides a good fit between theoretical and observed ADP values.

Observation of dynamic charge stripes in Tm0.19Yb0.81B12 at the metal-insulator transition

Accurate low temperature charge transport measurements in combination with high-precision x-ray diffraction experiments have allowed detection of the symmetry lowering in the single domain Tm_0.19Yb_0.81B₁₂ crystals that belong to the family of dodecaborides with metal-insulator transition. Based on the fine structure analysis we discover the formation of dynamic charge stripes within the semiconducting matrix of Tm_0.19Yb_0.81B₁₂. The charge dynamics in these conducting nano-size channels is characterized by broad-band optical spectroscopy that allowed estimating the frequency (~2.4 × 10¹¹ Hz) of quantum motion of the charge carriers. It is suggested that cooperative Jahn-Teller effect in the boron sublattice is a cause of the large-amplitude rattling modes of the Tm and Yb ions responsible for the 'modulation' of the conduction band along one of the [Formula: see text] directions through the variation of 5d-2p hybridization of electron states.