Silver intercalation in titanium disulphide

In order to study the intercalation process of Ag into the layered crystal TiS2, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) measurements have been performed using the Nuclear Microprobe at the Microanalytical Research Centre, University of Melbourne. The focused ion beam allows the three-dimensional distribution of the intercalate in the bulk material to be determined with micron lateral resolution. The data exhibit a sharp intercalation front. Silver was found to be present over the whole investigated area of the crystal but only over the first 100 nm in depth. In deeper layers the intercalation was restricted to the border zone of the crystal edge. After 10 min intercalation time, the intercalation front has moved 70 μm laterally from the crystal edge and after 2.5 h it has moved 160 μm. The stoichiometry of the Ag changes from 0.38-0.42 indicating a first-stage phase in the near-surface region to 0.14-0.2 (second-stage phase) in deeper layers