In this article we present a neutron diffraction in-situ study of the thermal evolution and high-temperature structure of layered cobaltites Y(Ba, Sr)Co2 O5+{delta}. Neutron thermodiffractograms and magnetic susceptibility measurements are reported in the temperature range 20 K <= T <= 570 K, as well as high resolution neutron diffraction experiments at selected temperatures. Starting from the as-synthesized samples with {delta} ~ 0.5, we show that the room temperature phases remain stable up to 550 K, where they start loosing oxygen and transform to a vacancy-disordered 112 structure with tetragonal symmetry. Our results also show how the so-called 122 structure can be stabilized at high temperature (around 450 K) in a sample in which the addition of Sr at the Ba site had suppressed its formation. In addition, we present the structural and magnetic properties of the resulting samples with a new oxygen content {delta} ~ 0.25 in the temperature range 20 K <= T <= 300 K.
Download