Substitutional doping of trirutiline phases, AB₂O₆

Full text: Metal oxides of formula MSb₂O₆ have garnered widespread interest in materials science research as they prove to be promising materials as semiconductor photocatalysts and ionic conductors. [1] Many of these compounds (e.g. M = Co, Zn, Ni, Fe etc.) are known to crystallize in a tetragonal trirutile phase [2], although CuSb₂O₆ is known to exhibit a monoclinic distortion. [3] We are investigating several ternary compounds with general formula AB₂O₆, with substitutional doping of A (Cu_1-xNi_xSb₂O₆) and B (ZnSb_2-xSn_xO₆). Preliminary results have shown us that these materials show promising behavior as mixed ionic conductors due to oxygen vacancies being created through the substitutional doping. (author)