| Popis: |
The distortion of the atomic structure around In and Cu atoms in sphalerite ZnS was explored by reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) method applied to the Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) interpretation. Parameters of the local atomic structure (interatomic distances) around dopants in synthetic In- and In-Cu-bearing sphalerites were determined by fitting In and Cu K-edge EXAFS spectra using evolutionary algorithm (EA) of the RMC method. These data were complemented with quantum chemical Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations and theoretical modeling of XANES spectra. The RMC-EXAFS method showed that the three coordination shells of In-bearing sphalerite are characterized by almost symmetrical Gaussian type peaks, which shapes are close to the one of pure sphalerite. This shape of the peaks is characteristic of symmetrical undisturbed structural environment of In in the sphalerite solid solution which is formed via the charge compensation schemes 3Zn2+↔2In3++□, where □ is a Zn vacancy. However, in case of (In,Cu)-bearing sphalerites formation of solid solution state follows the charge compensation scheme 2Zn2+↔Cu++In3+. In this case some splitting of the RDF peaks are observed, the splitting rate correlates with impurities concentrations. In contrast to In, the local atomic structure around Cu is not symmetric. The 2nd coordination shell around Cu (which consists of 12 metal atoms) can be described by three distinct Gaussian contributions. This splitting of interatomic distances in the 2nd coordination shell points out on the significant distortion of the ZnS crystal structure around Cu. The theoretical calculation of Cu K-edge XANES based on the distorted structural environment near Cu provides better agreement with the experiment than the symmetrical atomic model. According to our DFT calculations, considerable splitting of the 2nd coordination shell (up to 0.1 Å for Cu) occurs in the case of close positions of the impurity atoms or the Zn vacancy. The DFT calculations showed that the geometries with the close arrangement (clustering) of the impurities – In and Cu atoms, or the In atom and a vacancy, are energetically more favorable than the random distribution of the defects. However, as no heavy In atoms were detected in the 2nd shell of Cu, and the 2nd shell of In is almost undisturbed, we conclude that the defects are distributed randomly (or at least not close to each other). The disagreement of RMC-EXAFS fittings with results of DFT calculations, according to which the closest arrangement of dopants is the most stable configuration, can be explained by the presence of other defects of the sphalerite crystal lattice which were not considered in the DFT calculations. |
