Structure of Proton-Conducting Alkali Thio-Hydroxogermanates

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2008-10-14
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Karlsson, Maths
Matic, Aleksandar
Panas, Itai
Bowron, Daniel
Martin, Steve
Nelson, Carly
Martindale, Chad
Hall, Andreas
Börjesson, Lars
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Martin, Steve
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Materials Science and Engineering
Materials engineers create new materials and improve existing materials. Everything is limited by the materials that are used to produce it. Materials engineers understand the relationship between the properties of a material and its internal structure — from the macro level down to the atomic level. The better the materials, the better the end result — it’s as simple as that.
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Abstract

Using a combination of neutron diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations, we have investigated the structure of hydrated and dehydrated proton conducting alkali thio-hydroxogermanates of general formula M2GeS2(OH)2·yH2O (M = K, Rb, and Cs). The results show that the structure of hydrated and dry materials are basically the same, which confirms previous indications that the main effect of heating these materials is just a loss of water. We suggest that in the hydrated state the structure of these materials is built of dimers of thio-hydroxogermanate anions, with the water molecules acting as bridges between such dimers. In the dehydrated structure, the thio-hydroxogermanate anions instead form an extended network through the formation of interdimer hydrogen bonds through the −OH groups in the structure. The alkali ions are suggested to act as “space-fillers” in voids formed by the thio-hydroxogermanate anion dimers, in both the hydrated and the dehydrated state.

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Reprinted with permission from Chemistry of Materials 20 (2008): 6014–6021, doi:10.1021/cm8006155. Copyright 2008 American Chemical Society.

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Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2008
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