No Arabic abstract
Recent advances in tools for crystal structure analysis enabled us to describe a new phenomenon in structural chemistry, which, to this day, has remained hidden. Here we describe a crystal structure with an incommensurate compositional modulation, Mn0.6Ni0.4As. The sample adopts the NiAs type structure, but in contrast to a normal solid solution, we observe that manganese and nickel separate into layers of MnAs and NiAs with thickness of 2-4 face-shared octahedra. Experimentally, results are obtained by combination of 3D electron diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy and neutron diffraction. The distribution of octahedral units between the manganese and nickel layers is perfectly described by a modulation vector q = 0.360(3) c*. An additional periodicity is thus present in the compound. Positional modulation is observed of all elements as a consequence of the occupational modulation.
Epitaxial La2NiMnO6 thin films have been grown on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 using the PLD technique. The thin films are semiconducting and FM with a TC close to 270K, a coercive field of 920Oe, and a saturation magnetization of 5muB per f.u. TEM, conducted at RT, reveals a majority phase having I-centered structure with a=c=1.4asub and b=2asub along with a minority phase-domains having P-type structure (asub being the lattice parameter of the perovskite structure). A discusion on the presence of Ni/Mn long-range ordering, in light of recent literature on double perovskites La2NiMnO6 is presented.
For a successful integration of silicon in high-capacity anodes of Li-ion batteries, its intrinsic capacity decay on cycling due to severe volume swelling should be minimized. In this work, Ni-Sn intermetallics are studied as buffering matrix during reversible lithiation of Si-based anodes. Si/Ni-Sn composites have been synthetized by mechanical milling using C and Al as process control agents. Ni3Sn4, Ni3Sn2 intermetallics and their bi-phasic mixture were used as constituents of the buffering matrix. The structure, composition and morphology of the composites have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), 119Sn Transmission Mossbauer Spectroscopy (TMS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). They consist of ~ 150 nm Si nanoparticles embedded in a multi-phase matrix, the nanostructuration of which improves on increasing the Ni3Sn4 amount. The electrochemical properties of the composites were analyzed by galvanostatic cycling in half-cells. Best results for practical applications are found for the bi-phasic matrix Ni3Sn4-Ni3Sn2 in which Ni3Sn4 is electrochemically active while Ni3Sn2 is inactive. Low capacity loss, 0.04 %/cycle, and high coulombic efficiency, 99.6%, were obtained over 200 cycles while maintaining a high reversible capacity above 500 mAh/g at moderate regime C/5
We report the magnetic structure of room-temperature-stable, monoclinic Mn$_3$As$_2$ at 3 K and 250 K using neutron powder diffraction measurements. From magnetometry data, the Curie temperature of Mn$_3$As$_2$ was confirmed to be around 270 K. Calorimetry analysis showed the presence of another transition at 225 K. At 270 K, Mn$_3$As$_2$ undergoes a $k = 0$ ferrimagnetic ordering in the magnetic space group $C2/m$ (#12.58) with Mn moments pointing along $b$. Below 225 K, there is a canting of Mn moments in the $ac$ plane which produces a multi-$k$ non-collinear magnetic structure in space group $C2/c$ (#15.85). The components of Mn moments along $b$ follow $k=0$ ordering and the components along $a$ and $c$ have $k = [0 0 frac{1}{2}]$ propagation vector. The change in the magnetic ground state with temperature provides a deeper insight into the factors that govern magnetic ordering in Mn-As compounds.
The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in paramagnetic materials has been widely used for attaining very low temperatures by applying a magnetic field isothermally and removing it adiabatically. The effect can be exploited also for room temperature refrigeration by using recently discovered giant MCE materials. In this letter, we report on an inverse situation in Ni-Mn-Sn alloys, whereby applying a magnetic field adiabatically, rather than removing it, causes the sample to cool. This has been known to occur in some intermetallic compounds, for which a moderate entropy increase can be induced when a field is applied, thus giving rise to an inverse magnetocaloric effect. However, the entropy change found for some ferromagnetic Ni-Mn-Sn alloys is just as large as that reported for giant MCE materials, but with opposite sign. The giant inverse MCE has its origin in a martensitic phase transformation that modifies the magnetic exchange interactions due to the change in the lattice parameters.
We report a systematic study on the magneto-structural transition in Mn-rich Fe-doped Mn-Fe-Ni-Sn(Sb/In) Heusler alloys by keeping the total valence electron concentration (e/a ratio) fixed. The martensitic transition (MT) temperature is found to shift by following a proportional relationship with the e/a ratio of the magnetic elements alone. The magnetic entropy change across MT for a selected sample (Mn49FeNi40Sn9In) has been estimated from three different measurement methods (isofield magnetization (M) vs temperature (T), isothermal M vs field (H) and heat capacity (HC) vs T). We observed that though the peak value of magnetic entropy change changes with the measurement methods, the broadened shape of the magnetic entropy change vs T curves and the corresponding cooling power (~140 Jkg-1) remains invariant. The equivalent adiabatic temperature change ~ -2.6 K has been obtained from indirect measurements of temperature change. Moreover, an exchange bias field ~ 783 Oe at 5 K and a magnetoresistance of -30% are also obtained in one of these materials.