Structural changes in phase transitions

Structure at high temperatures. A distorted perovskite would be expected to transform to the cubic structure at high temperatures. The Born model of ionic solids with the appropriate repulsive and van der Waals parameters can explain the relative stabilities of crystal structures in partly covalent solids, an ionicity parameter would have to be used to predict the preferred crystal structure (see Chapter 1, Section 1.3). 

Buerger (1951) classified phase transitions on the basis of structural changes involving primary or higher coordination as follows  

In displacive transitions only small changes in the arrangement of coordination polyhedra occur. Reconstructive transitions would require the breaking and making of bonds, but the same can be accomplished by a simple dilatational mechanism. Buerger proposed such a mechanism for the transformation from the CsCl structure to the NaCl structure (Fig. 4.10). Such deformational relations are known to exist between 

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