X-ray emission spectra and chemical bonding in TiC, TiN and TiO

Abstract

The experimental X-ray emission spectra of titanium carbide, nitride and oxide have been obtained. Quantum-chemical calculations of the electronic structure of clusters in TiC, TiN and TiO have been carried out by the semiempirical Mulliken-Wolfsberg-Helmholtz method with self-consistency on charges and configurations. The results of these calculations are in good agreement with the X-ray spectroscopy data and offer a reasonable explanation of the experimental spectra. Chemical bonding and electronic structure of the compounds are discussed. Ionicity is shown to increase from TiC to TiO according to the electronegativity principle, the calculated charges on the metal ions being close to experimental estimates. The role of metal-metal and metal-nonmetal interactions in the chemical bonding is analysed. Vacancy models for TiO and their effect on the X-ray emission spectra are investigated. By the CNDO method with configurational interactions the optical spectrum of titanium carbide has been calculated. It is shown that this spectrum may be interpreted from the results for the [TiC 6] cluster, without introducing the Lye-Logothetis band scheme with negative charge on the metal ion.