17O solid-state NMR spectroscopy of A2B2O7 oxides : quantitative isotopic enrichment and spectral acquisition?
Date
14/02/2018Author
Grant ID
EP/F018096/1
WM150021
614290 - EXONMR
Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The potential of 17O NMR spectroscopy for the investigation of A2B2O7 ceramic oxides important in the encapsulation of radioactive waste, is demonstrated, with post-synthetic enrichment by exchange with 17O2 gas. For Y2Sn2O7, Y2Ti2O7 and La2Sn2O7 pyrochlores, enrichment of the two distinct O species is clearly non quantitative at lower temperatures (~700 °C and below) and at shorter times, despite these being used in prior work, with preferential enrichment of OA2B2 favoured over that of OA4. At higher temperatures, the 17O NMR spectra suggest that quantitative enrichment has been achieved, but the integrated signal intensities do not reflect the crystallographic 1:6 (O1:O2) ratio until corrected for differences in T1 relaxation rates and, more importantly, the contribution of the satellite transitions. 17O NMR spectra of Y2Zr2O7 and Y2Hf2O7 defect fluorites showed little difference with any variation in enrichment temperature or time, although an increase in the absolute level of enrichment (up to ~7.5%) was observed at higher temperature. DFT calculations show that the six distinct resonances observed cannot be assigned unambiguously, as each has contributions from more than one of the five possible next nearest neighbour environments. For La2Ti2O7, which adopts a layered perovskite-like structure, little difference in the spectral intensities is observed with enrichment time or temperature, although the highest absolute levels of enrichment (~13%) were obtained at higher temperature. This work demonstrates that 17O NMR has the potential to be a powerful probe of local structure and disorder in oxides, but that considerable care must be taken both in choosing the conditions for 17O enrichment and the experimental acquisition parameters if the necessary quantitative measurements are to be obtained for more complex systems.
Citation
Fernandes , A , Moran , R , Sneddon , S , Dawson , D M , McKay , D , Bignami , G P M , Blanc , F , Whittle , K & Ashbrook , S E 2018 , ' 17 O solid-state NMR spectroscopy of A 2 B 2 O 7 oxides : quantitative isotopic enrichment and spectral acquisition? ' , RSC Advances , vol. 8 , no. 13 , pp. 7089-7101 . https://doi.org/10.1039/C8RA00596F
Publication
RSC Advances
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2046-2069Type
Journal article
Description
We would like to thank the ERC (EU FP7 Consolidator Grant 614290 “EXONMR”) and EPSRC (EP/L505079/1, EP/M506631/1, EP/L005581/2 and EP/K031511/1). SEA would also like to thank the Royal Society and Wolfson Foundation for a merit award. The UK 850 MHz solid-state NMR Facility used in this research was funded by EPSRC and BBSRC (contract reference PR140003), as well as the University of Warwick including via part funding through Birmingham Science City Advanced Materials Projects 1 and 2 supported by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Collaborative assistance from the 850 MHz Facility Manager (Dinu Iuga, University of Warwick) is acknowledged. The research data (and/or materials) supporting this publication can be accessed at DOI: 10.17630/843cd0a1-4963-45f6-9285-10bf32c84c8d. Accepted 06/02/2018Collections
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