Synthesis and neutron powder diffraction structural analysis of oxidized delafossite YCuO2.5

We report a study of the evolution of the structure of the delafossite-derived compounds YCuO2+δ as a function of oxygen stoichiometry. The structural details of the oxygenated material YCuO2.5 were examined by means of high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. We confirmed that YCuO2.5 adopts an orthorhombic superstructure (a=3aH, b=cHb=cH, c=2aHc=2aH) in which the anions are located at the center of corner-sharing triangles to form undulating chains of Cu2+ (s=1/2s=1/2), running along a-axis direction.

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