Pressure effects on phase equilibria and solid solubility in MgO-Y2O3 nanocomposites

Abstract

We study the temperature and pressure dependence of phase evolution in the 0.5MgO-0.5Y2O3 nanocomposite system using a diamond anvil apparatus in conjunction with in situ synchrotron energy dispersive x-ray diffraction at 7 GPa hydrostatic pressure. At (298 K, 7.0 GPa), structural transformations in the Y2O3 phase are observed, giving rise to the co-existence of its cubic, hexagonal, and monoclinic polymorphs together with cubic MgO. An increase in temperature to 1273 K causes the crystallinity of the Y2O3 hexagonal and monoclinic phases to increase. Isothermal and isobaric hold at (1273 K, 7.0 GPa) for 60 min results in yttrium dissolution in cubic MgO, causing ∼1.0% expansive volumetric lattice strain despite the large differences in the ionic radii of the cations. Cooling the nanocomposite to (298 K, 0 GPa) after a 60 min soak yields four phase co-existence among cubic MgO and cubic, hexagonal, and monoclinic Y2O3. The residual MgO unit cell volume expansion is 0.69% at 298 K, indicating solid solution formation at room temperature despite large differences in the ionic radii of Mg2+ and Y3+. The macroscopic shrinkage due to densification is 3% by volume. Thermodynamic considerations suggest that the relative molar partial volume of Y3+ in MgO is a negative quantity, indicating that the partial molar volume of Y3+ in the solid solution is smaller than its molar volume in the pure state. Aging of the nanocomposites for 240 h does not change the observed 4 phase co-existence. We propose a crystallographic model in which the observed volumetric expansion of the MgO unit cell is primarily attributed to two hydrostatic expansive strain components accompanying solid solution formation: (i) Coulomb repulsion among O2− ions in the immediate vicinity of Mg2+ vacancies, and (ii) misfit strain due to differences in ionic radii upon Y3+ substitution on Mg2+ sites.