Surface thermodynamics of yttrium titanate pyrochlore nanomaterials

Margaret E Reece; Jiahong Li; Andrew C Strzelecki; Juan Wen; Qiang Zhang; Xiaofeng Guo

doi:10.1039/d3nr05605h

Surface thermodynamics of yttrium titanate pyrochlore nanomaterials

Nanoscale. 2024 Mar 7;16(10):5421-5432. doi: 10.1039/d3nr05605h.

Authors

Margaret E Reece^{1

2}, Jiahong Li¹, Andrew C Strzelecki^{2

3}, Juan Wen⁴, Qiang Zhang¹, Xiaofeng Guo^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA. [email protected].
² Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
³ The School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
⁴ School of Materials and Energy, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China.

PMID: 38385242
DOI: 10.1039/d3nr05605h

Abstract

Nanocrystalline pyrochlore materials have been investigated for their enhanced radiation tolerance as ceramic nuclear waste hosts. In this work, we study the thermodynamic driving force of nano-scale materials for radiation resistance. The size dependent thermodynamic properties of a series of Y₂Ti₂O₇ nanoparticles were investigated. Samples were synthesized by a sol-gel method and characterized by synchrotron X-ray diffraction, BET analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis. The surface and interface enthalpies of Y₂Ti₂O₇ were determined by high temperature oxide melt drop solution calorimetry to be 4.07 J m^-2 and 3.04 J m^-2, respectively. The experimentally obtained surface energy is in good agreement with computationally derived average surface energies for yttrium and other rare-earth titanate pyrochlores. Theoretical links between nanoparticle stability, surface energy, and radiation resistance of pyrochlore materials were then explored.