Correlation between Structure, Electrical, and Magnetic Properties of Some Alkali-Oxide Materials

In this chapter, the correlation between structure and electrical properties of Na2MP1.5As0.5O7 (MII = Co and Cu) are treated. The structural study shows that the cobalt and copper isotype materials can be crystallized in the tetragonal and monoclinic systems, respectively. The electrical study using impedance spectroscopy technique showed that these mixed diphosphate diarsenates are fast electrical conductors; however, the cobalt material exhibited more conductive property than the copper compound. In addition, the powder perovskite manganites La0.7M0.2M’0.1MnO3 (M = Sr, Ba and M’ = Na, Ag and K) have been prepared using the conventional solid-state reaction. The structural, magnetic, and magnetocaloric properties of these perovskite manganites compounds were studied extensively by means of X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and magnetic measurements. These samples were crystallized in the distorted rhombohedral system with R3c space group. The variation of magnetization (M) vs. temperature (T) reveals that all compounds exhibit a second-order ferromagnetic to paramagnetic phase transition in the vicinity of the Curie temperature (TC). A maximum magnetic entropy change, ΔSMMax, of 4.07 J kg−1 K−1 around 345 K was obtained in La0.7Sr0.2Na0.1MnO3 sample upon a magnetic field change of 5 T. The ΔSMMax values of La0.7Ba0.2M’0.1MnO3 are smaller in magnitude compared to La0.7Sr0.2M’0.1MnO3 samples and occur at lower temperatures.