Elucidating structural order and disorder phenomena in mullite-type Al4B2O9 by automated electron diffraction tomography
The crystal structure and disorder phenomena of Al4B2O9, an aluminum borate from the mullite-type family, were studied using automated diffraction tomography (ADT), a recently established method for collection and analysis of electron diffraction data. Al4B2O9, prepared by sol-gel approach, crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/m. The ab initio structure determination based on three-dimensional electron diffraction data from single ordered crystals reveals that edge-connected AlO6 octahedra expanding along the b axis constitute the backbone. The ordered structure (A) was confirmed by TEM and HAADF-STEM images. Furthermore, disordered crystals with diffuse scattering along the b axis…
High-Pressure Synthesis of Novel Boron Oxynitride B6N4O3 with Sphalerite Type Structure
A novel crystalline boron oxynitride (BON) phase has been synthesized under static pressures exceeding 15 GPa and temperatures above 1900 °C, from molar mixtures of B2O3 and h-BN. The structure and composition of the synthesized product were studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, automated diffraction tomography, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). BON shows a hexagonal cell (R3m, Z = 3) with lattice parameters a = 2.55(5) A and c = 6.37(13) A, and a crystal structure closely related to the cubic sphalerite type. The EELS quantification yielded 42 at % B, 35 at % N, and 23 at % O (B:N:O ≈ 6:4:3). E…