Thermoelastic and structural properties of ionically conducting cerate perovskites: (II) SrCeO₃ between 1273 K and 1723 K

The temperature dependence of the crystal structure and the thermoelastic properties of SrCeO3 have been determined from Rietveld refinement of high resolution, neutron time-of-flight powder diffraction data collected in 5 K intervals between 1273 K and 1723 K. No evidence was found for critical behaviour in the amplitudes of the modes that soften in zone boundary phase transitions in perovskite-structured phases suggesting SrCeO3 may remain orthorhombic, space group Pbnm from 1.2 K up to the 1 atm melting point of 2266 K. The temperature variation of the crystal structure has been determined from mode decomposition techniques and the structural evolution has been inferred from the temperature-dependences of the spontaneous shear strain and the order parameter associated with the anti-phase tilt. Thermoelastic properties have been derived from the temperature variation of the unit cell, isobaric heat capacity, and atomic displacement parameters and shows good agreement with earlier work carried out on the lightly doped system SrCe0.95Yb0.05Oξ (ξ [similar] 3). Temperature-dependent corrections for the bond valence parameters for strontium and cerium are reported.