Order-disorder transition in the complex lithium spinel Li2CoTi3O8

Li2CoTi3O8 has an ordered Li2BB'3O8 spinel structure, space group P4332, at room temperature with 3:1 ordering of Ti and Li on the octahedral sites, and Li, Co disordered over the tetrahedral site. Rietveld refinement of variable temperature neutron powder diffraction data has shown an order-disorder phase transition in Li2CoTi3O8 which commences at ∼500 deg. C with Li and Co mixing on the tetrahedral and 4-fold octahedral sites and is complete at a first order structural discontinuity at ∼915 deg. C. The fraction of Ti on the 12-fold octahedral site exhibits a small decrease with increasing temperature, which may suggest that the disordering involves all three cations. Above 930 deg. C, the structure, space group Fd3-barm, has Li, Co and Ti sharing a single-octahedral site and Li, Co sharing a tetrahedral site, although Co still exhibits a preference for tetrahedral coordination. A labelling scheme for ordered and partially ordered 3:1 spinels is devised which focuses on the occupancy of the Li,B cations. - Graphical abstract: Rietveld refinement of variable temperature neutron powder diffraction data shows an order-disorder phase transition in Li2CoTi3O8 commencing at ∼500 deg. C with Li,Co mixing on tetrahedral and octahedral sites. This becomes complete at a first-order structural discontinuity at ∼915 deg. C. Above 930 deg. C, the structure, space group Fd3-barm, has Li, Co and Ti sharing a single-octahedral site and Li, Co sharing a tetrahedral site