A study of temperature and pressure induced structural and electronic changes in SbCl5 intercalated graphite: Part I. Structural aspects

Abstract

We have studied the effects of temperature (10 ≤ T ≤ 295 K) and pressure (0 ≤ p ≤ 0.8 GPa) on the state of intercalate layer crystallization in SbCl5 graphite intercalation compounds of stages 2, 4, and 8. At room temperature (RT), the intercalate layer may in some second stage compounds be fully crystallized and lowering the temperature creates no further modifications. In all other cases, i.e., those in which the intercalate layer has only partial crystallization at RT, lowering T leads to the formation of new in-plane unit cells, the final state depending on the kinetics. Applying pressure to above 0.3–0.5 GPa results in crystallization in all cases, different from that induced simply by lowering of the temperature. We discuss the unit cells observed and the relationships they bear to each other in the light of other works on similar compounds.