Synthesis and Structural Characterization of Ca12Ga14O33

Ca12Al14O33 [C12A7] is a ceramic material consisting of a positively charged cage-like framework. Occluded anions occupy one out of every six cages to charge balance the system. This gives the material high ion mobility and the potential for ion storage. The highly functional nature of the material raises questions about isostructural materials and their potential properties. The existence of an analogous C12G7 phase that substitutes Ga on the Al sites has been theorized due to the similarity of the CaO-Al2O3 and CaO-Ga2O3 systems including several isostructural compounds. However, attempts to synthesize C12G7 through single solid-state techniques has only resulted in formation of the C5G3 phase. In this study, wet chemistry techniques were attempted to synthesize C12G7. The C12G7 structure was successfully identified using powder X-ray diffraction and analyzed using the Rietveld method. Non-ambient x-ray diffraction was used to better understand the formation process. Neutron diffraction was used to verify the results of X-ray diffraction, and better understand the occluded species in the cage.