Mayenite-based electride C12A7e−: an innovative synthetic method via plasma arc melting. (21st December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Weber, Sebastian; Schäfer, Sebastian; Saccoccio, Mattia; Seidel, Karsten; Kohlmann, Holger; Gläser, Roger; Schunk, Stephan A.
• Is Part Of: Materials chemistry frontiers. Volume 5:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 1301
• Page End: 1314
• Publication Date: 2020-12-21
• Subjects: Materials science -- Periodicals; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/d0qm00688b
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-1529

Abstract

Abstract : The plasma arc melting of mixtures of oxygen-mayenite and solid-reductants (aluminum and graphite) enables the scalable synthesis of mayenite-based electrides with treatment times below one minute. Abstract : Mayenite-based electrides have been reported as promising support materials for applications in heterogeneous catalysis. However, the current synthetic access to mayenite materials is limited by a method portfolio of complex procedures far from industrial applicability and thus hinders research and application in a broader context. We report the first plasma-based synthesis of the mayenite-based electride [Ca24 Al28 O64 ] 4+ :(4e − ) obtained by plasma treatment of oxygen-mayenite solid-reductant precursor mixtures. Aluminum and graphite can be successfully used as solid reductant: while aluminum leads to enhanced secondary phase formation of krotite during the treatment, the use of graphite as solid reductant, leads to phase-pure samples. We further critically discuss challenges and limitations in applying literature reported methods to quantitatively determine the electron concentration of the electrides. For this purpose, EPR-, DRUV/vis-spectroscopy, Rietveld refinement of PXRD and DSC-TG analysis under oxidizing atmosphere were applied and critically revised. We show the possibilities using the facile plasma-based synthesis as a scalable method to obtain semiconducting and close to metallic conducting electrides.