Oxygen vacancy ordering in strontium doped rare earth cobaltate perovskites Ln1−xSrxCoO3−δ (Ln=La, Pr and Nd; x>0.60)

A family of Sr-doped perovskite compounds Ln{sub 1-x}Sr {sub x}CoO{sub 3-{delta}} (Ln = La{sup 3+}, Pr{sup 3+} and Nd{sup 3+}; x > 0.60), were prepared by sol-gel chemistry and reaction at 1100 deg. C under 1 atm of oxygen. This structural family has been shown to be present only for rare earth ions larger than Sm{sup 3+} and an upper limit of Sr{sup 2+} solubility in these phases was found to exist between x = 0.90 and 0.95. X-ray diffraction shows oxygen-deficient, simple cubic (Pm-3m) perovskite crystal structures. The combination of electron and powder neutron diffraction reveals that oxygen vacancy ordering occurs, leading to a tetragonal (P4/mmm) superstructure and a doubling of the basic perovskite unit along the crystallographic c-axis. No additional Ln{sup 3+}/Sr{sup 2+} cation ordering was observed.