A coupled electron diffraction and rigid unit mode (RUM) study of the crystal chemistry of some zeotypic AlPO4 compounds

Ray L. Withers*, Yun Liu

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Electron diffraction and lattice dynamical calculations are used to investigate the unit cells, space group symmetries and inherent displacive flexibility of the room-temperature average structures of AlPO4-8, AlPO4-16 and AlPO4-tridymite. The zero-frequency rigid unit modes (RUMs) of the idealized high-symmetry polymorphs thereof are also investigated along with their relationship to the lower-temperature polymorphism of these zeotypic aluminophosphates. The clear presence of G±12c* satellite reflections in addition to the Bragg reflections (G) of the underlying Cmc21 parent structure in the case of AlPO4-8 shows that the true unit cell of the room-temperature polymorph has a doubled c-axis due to a condensed RUM mode. Structured diffuse scattering is also observed which can be related to the thermal excitation of RUM modes. In the case of AlPO 4-tridymite, a complex F1 triclinic polymorph is observed and related to soft RUM modes while, in the case of AlPO4-16, a soft q=0 RUM mode is shown to be responsible for an observed phase transition in the case of the all SiO2 analogue of AlPO4-16. A large number of additional zero-frequency RUM modes also exist in the case of AlPO 4-16.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2647-2657
    Number of pages11
    JournalJournal of Solid State Chemistry
    Volume178
    Issue number9
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Sept 2005

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