MATERIALI INORGANICI: STRUTTURA E PROPRIETA'

The course objective is to help students develop their knowledge and skills in designing, synthesis and characterization methods of inorganic materials. They will learn the basics of material structures and their relationship with properties and applications. They will also be introduced to a wide range of traditional methods of synthesis of polycrystalline and single crystals inorganic materials.

This course is organized in lectures (6 CFUs) and laboratory work (2 CFUs) in order to give the opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge on simple practical cases.

Crystalline structures

Crystals. Lattices and basic set. Translation vectors. Unit cells and lattice parameters. The five two-dimensional lattices. Three-dimensional lattices: the 7 crystal systems and the 14 bravais lattices.

Simmetry. Point simmetry elements and point groups. Schonflies and Hermann-Mauguin notation.Point group and crystallogaphy. Translational simmetry and space groups. Asymmetric unit.

Lattice plane and directions. Miller Index and reciprocal lattice.

Materials structures. Crystal lattices and spheres packing. Closed and not-closed packing. Coordination polyhedra. Factors affecting the crystal structure

Metallic solid. HCP, CCP and BCC structures. Main structures of metals and alloys.

Ceramic solids. Typical structures: Rock salt, Cesium Chloride, cadmium iodide, fluorite, AsNi, ZnS, TiO2, perovskites and spinels. Space group of the main structures. Structures of graphite and diamond

Synthetic methods of materials:

Solid state syntheses: Introduction. Factors affecting reaction rates. Wagner’s model. Mixing methods. Co-precipitation. Combustion methods. Carbothermal reduction.

Liquid-solid syntheses: Precipitation from aqueous solutions. Sol-gel. Synthesis of zeolites. Precipitation from melts. Flux methods. Idrothermal and solvothermal methods. Growth of single crystal. Growth from solutions: gel methods. Growth from melts: Czochralski and Bridgman-Stockbarger's methods. Zone melting. Verneuil flame fusion method.

Gas-solid syntheses: Vapor phase transport. Liquid-assisted vapor phase syntheses. (VLS).

Modifications of existing systems: Intercalation compounds. Post-synthetic functionalization.

Physical vapor deposition of films: Evaporation and sputtering

Type of materials and applications

Magnetic materials. Magnetic Properties. Effect of temperatur: The Curie-Weiss law.Magnetic materials. Metals and alloys. Transition metal oxides. Manganites. Ferrites. Nanomagnets and molecular magnets.

Materials for optical applications. Optical properties. Luminescence and phosphors. Materials for LASER and LED applications.

Metals and alloys. Metal preparation. Alloys. Steel. Superelastic and shape memory alloys.

Open structure systems: metal orgaic framework (MOF). Solid electrolytes and lithium batteries.

Laboratory activities .

​​1)Synthesis of ceramics through co-precipitation and solid state synthesis. Synthesis of CaMnO3 , La0.85Sr0.15MnO3 e La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 . XRD characterization.

2)Nanomaterial synthesis from solution. Magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle synthesis and magnetic separation. XRD characterization.

3) Synthesis of Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) for envirmental applications. Synthesis of ZIF-8. FT-IR characterization. Adsorption tests of organic contaminants

4) Synthesis of Eu-based luminescent MOFs.

5) FTIR characterization of monocrystalline Si. Quantitative determination of interstitial oxygen in CZ Si(100).

.6)Sputtering of films. DC plasma sputtering of Au films.

1. On-line slides available on: http://studium.unict.it/
2. Anthony R. West, Solid State Chemistry and its Applications, second edition Wiley, 2014 or A. R. West ”Basic Solid State Chemistry and its Applications “ Wiley, 2012
3. C. Hammond “Introduzione alla cristallografia” Zanichelli, 1994
4. D. E. Sands “Introduction to Crystallography” Dover Publication 1993