Electronic sublattice

Fig. 6. Schematic of band gap energy. Eg, for the three types of electronic and ionic conductors. For electronic conductors the comparison is made of the relative occupancy of valence and conduction bands. For ionic conductors, the bands correspond to the relative occupancy of ionic sublattices. For (a),...

The isomorphous diiodides of Ce, Pr and Gd stand apart from all the other, salt-like, dihalides. These three, like LaH, are notable for their metallic lustre and very high conductivities and are best formulated as (Ln ,2I",e", the electron being in a delocalized conduction band. Besides the dihalides, other reduced species have been obtained such as LnsCln (Ln = Sm, Gd, Ho). They have fluorite-related structures (p. 118) in which the anionic sublattice is partially rearranged to accommodate additional anions. 

AgsSBr, /3-AgsSI, and a-AgsSI are cationic conductors due to the structural disorder of the cation sublattices. AgsSI (see Fig. 5) has been discussed for use in solid-electrolyte cells (209,371, 374,414-416) because of its high silver ionic conductivity at rather low temperatures (see Section II,D,1). The practical use seems to be limited, however, by an electronic part of the conductivity that is not negligible (370), and by the instability of the material with respect to loss of iodine (415). 

The structure of CaB contains bonding bands typical of the boron sublattice and capable of accommodating 20 electrons per CaB formula, and separated from antibonding bands by a relatively narrow gap (from 1.5 to 4.4 eV) . The B atoms of the B(, octahedron yield only 18 electrons thus a transfer of two electrons from the metal to the boron sublattice is necessary to stabilize the crystalline framework. The semiconducting properties of M B phases (M = Ca, Sr ", Ba, Eu, Yb ) and the metallic ones of M B or M B5 phases (Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd ", Gd , Tb , Dy and Th ) are directly explained by this model . The validity of these models may be questionable because of the existence and stability of Na,Ba, Bft solid solutions and of KB, since they prove that the CaB -type structure is still stable when the electron contribution of the inserted atom is less than two . A detailed description of physical properties of hexaborides involves not only the bonding and antibonding B bands, but also bonds originating in the atomic orbitals of the inserted metal . ... 

Note that, in general, anions are larger in size than cations due to the extra electrons present in the former. A hexagonal lattice is shown in 3.1.6. with both Frenkel and Schottky defects, as well as substitutional defects. Thus, if a cation is missing (cation vacancy) in the cation sublattice, a like anion will be missing in the anion sub-lattice. This is known as a Schottky defect (after the first investigator to note its existence). 

In an effort to understand the mechanisms involved in formation of complex orientational structures of adsorbed molecules and to describe orientational, vibrational, and electronic excitations in systems of this kind, a new approach to solid surface theory has been developed which treats the properties of two-dimensional dipole systems.61,109,121 In adsorbed layers, dipole forces are the main contributors to lateral interactions both of dynamic dipole moments of vibrational or electronic molecular excitations and of static dipole moments (for polar molecules). In the previous chapter, we demonstrated that all the information on lateral interactions within a system is carried by the Fourier components of the dipole-dipole interaction tensors. In this chapter, we consider basic spectral parameters for two-dimensional lattice systems in which the unit cells contain several inequivalent molecules. As seen from Sec. 2.1, such structures are intrinsic in many systems of adsorbed molecules. For the Fourier components in question, the lattice-sublattice relations will be derived which enable, in particular, various parameters of orientational structures on a complex lattice to be expressed in terms of known characteristics of its Bravais sublattices. In the framework of such a treatment, the ground state of the system concerned as well as the infrared-active spectral frequencies of valence dipole vibrations will be elucidated. 

Non-stoichiometry is a very important property of actinide dioxides. Small departures from stoichiometric compositions, are due to point-defects in anion sublattice (vacancies for AnOa-x and interstitials for An02+x )- A lattice defect is a point perturbation of the periodicity of the perfect solid and, in an ionic picture, it constitutes a point charge with respect to the lattice, since it is a point of accumulation of electrons or electron holes. This point charge must be compensated, in order to preserve electroneutrality of the total lattice. Actinide ions having usually two or more oxidation states within a narrow range of stability, the neutralization of the point charges is achieved through a Redox process, i.e. oxidation or reduction of the cation. This is in fact the main reason for the existence of non-stoichiometry. In this respect, actinide compounds are similar to transition metals oxides and to some lanthanide dioxides. 

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