The Unconventional Copper Oxide Superconductor with Conventional Constitution

A new Ba2CuO4-y superconductor with critical temperature (Tc) exceeding 70 K was discovered. The X-ray absorption measurement gives evidence that this cuprate resembles La2CuO4 but is doped with a fairly large amount of holes, while in contrast to the so far known hole-doped high-Tc cuprates, the new cuprate possesses a much shorter local apical oxygen distance as well as much expanded in-plane Cu–O bond, leading to unprecedented compressed local octahedron. In compressed local octahedron, the Cu3d3z2–r2 orbital level will be lifted above the Cu3dx2-y2 orbital level with more three-dimensional features, implying that pairing symmetry may carry admixtures from more than one gap, suggesting that Ba2CuO4-y composed of alkaline earth copper oxides that are the essential elements to form cuprate superconductors may belong to a new branch of cuprate superconductors.

Core-level photoemission spectra of Mo0.3Cu0.7Sr2ErCu2Oy, a superconducting perovskite derivative. Unconventional structure–property relationships

The correlation between the critical temperature, Tc, and the apical oxygen distance, the buckling angle and the charge transfer energy (Δ) with the oxidation, in the family of materials: Mo0.3Cu0.7Sr2ErCu2Oy.

Structure and properties of strontium-doped phosphate-based glasses

Owing to similarity in both ionic size and polarity, strontium (Sr 2+ ) is known to behave in a comparable way to calcium (Ca 2+ ), and its role in bone metabolism has been well documented as both anti-resorptive and bone forming. In this study, novel quaternary strontium-doped phosphate-based glasses, containing 1, 3 and 5 mol% SrO, were synthesized and characterized. 31 P magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance results showed that, as the Sr 2+ content is increased in the glasses, there is a slight increase in disproportionation of Q 2 phosphorus environments into Q 1 and Q 3 environments. Moreover, shortening and strengthening of the phosphorus to bridging oxygen distance occurred as obtained from FTIR. The general broadening of the spectral features with Sr 2+ content is most probably due to the increased variation of the phosphate–cation bonding interactions caused by the introduction of the third cation. This increased disorder may be the cause of the increased degradation of the Sr-containing glasses relative to the Sr-free glass. As confirmed from elemental analysis, all Sr-containing glasses showed higher Na 2 O than expected and this also could be accounted for by the higher degradation of these glasses compared with Sr-free glasses. Measurements of surface free energy (SFE) showed that incorporation of strontium had no effect on SFE, and samples had relatively higher fractional polarity, which is not expected to promote high cell activity. From viability studies, however, the incorporation of Sr 2+ showed better cellular response than Sr 2+ -free glasses, but still lower than the positive control. This unfavourable cellular response could be due to the high degradation nature of these glasses and not due to the presence of Sr 2+ .

Temperature-dependent disorder in a natural Mg-Al-Fe2+-Fe3+-Spinel

A natural Mg-Al-Fe spinel from the Balmuccia peridotite (Italian Western Alps) was annealed at T between 650 and 1150°C, under controlled oxygen activity, and quenched in H2O. Twenty-three cation distributions were calculated from XRD structural refinements in tandem with microprobe analysis, and verified by Mössbauer spectroscopy in the case of unheated samples.Unheated crystals showed essentially ordered distribution of Fe3+ in octahedral and Fe2+ in tetrahedral sites, the only intracrystalline disorder being represented by ∼0.12 atoms per formula unit of [4]Al and [6]Mg. Thermal runs and quenching maintained substantially ordered distribution of Fe2+ and Fe3+ up to ∼990°C and produced continuous [4]Mg-[6]Al exchange. Between 990 and 1150°C, the previous order of Fe2+-Fe3+ appeared to change slightly, [6]Fe2+ reaching ∼0.04 afu and [6]Mg ≅ [4]Al ≅ 0.24 afu at the highest T. After quenching from this temperature, Fe2+ still resided mainly in the T site. Some previously heated crystals underwent reordering on lowering of the temperature.Experimental data, integrated with existing literature, enabled cation-oxygen distance in this structure to be improved. Results from annealed samples allowed the formulation of an experimental thermometric function based on Mg-Al intracrystalline disorder.

Synthese und Struktureines Strontium-Vanadyl-Phosphats: Sr2(VO)(PO4)2 / Synthesis and Structure of a Strontium Vanadyl Phosphate: Sr2(VO)(PO4)2

Dark green single crystals of Sr2(VO)P2O8 have been prepared by solid state reactions in closed quartz tubes. X-ray investigations led to monoclinic symmetry, space group C2h6-I2/a, a = 6.744(4), b = 15.866(4), c = 7.032(2) Å, β = 115.41(2), Z = 4. Sr2(VO)P2O8 is isotypic to Sr2(VO)V2O8 and shows V4+ in split positions. The split positions are in non-centric octahedral coordination forming a short vanadium to oxygen distance typical for the vanadyl group. The crystal chemistry of the monovanadyl orthophate Sr2(VO)P2O8 is discussed considering related divanadyl phosphates.