Structural chemistry of Cu3N powders obtained by ammonolysis reactions

• Published in: Solid state sciences 2007-10, Vol.9 (10), p.907-913
• Main Authors: PANICONI, Giordano, STOEVA, Zlatka, DOBERSTEIN, Harald, SMITH, Ronald I, GALLAGHER, Bryan L, GREGORY, Duncan H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; Growth from solutions; Inorganic compounds; Materials science; Methods of crystal growth; physics of crystal growth; Physics; Structure of solids and liquids; crystallography; Structure of specific crystalline solids
• ISSN: 1293-2558; 1873-3085
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solidstatesciences.2007.03.017

Powder samples of Cu3N prepared from a CuF2 precursor using ammonolysis reactions have been examined by powder X-ray and neutron diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Rietveld refinements against the powder diffraction data confirm that this compound is cubic, space group Pm3m, with nitrogen atoms located at the corners of the unit cell and the copper atoms occupying the centres of the unit cell edges. The neutron diffraction data confirmed that both nitrogen and copper sites are fully occupied and showed no evidence for nitrogen non-stoichiometry or the presence of interstitial copper atoms at the centre of the unit cell. The SEM study reveals that the Cu3N powders are composed of plate-shaped particles of sub-micron size. The overall results indicate that the synthetic procedure reported here can be used to prepare reproducibly large amounts of stoichiometric Cu3N powders of high purity.