Rare-Earth Compounds for Advanced Functional Applications

A special issue of Metals (ISSN 2075-4701).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 2664

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Guest Editor
Universita di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Cassino, Italy
Interests: ceramic electrolytes for SOFC; rare-earth compounds; entropy-stabilized oxides; wet-chemical synthesis; magnetic metal–ceramic nanocomposites
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to IUPAC, the rare-earth elements comprise 17 chemical elements, including 15 lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium. They have found applications in many contemporary technologies, such as communication and consumer electronics, catalysts, lighting products, displays, ceramics, advanced optics, batteries, fuel cells, and permanent magnets, to name a few. In addition, rare-earth elements are also increasingly being used in other niche markets, which encompass nuclear technologies, laser or microwave crystals and garnets, carbon arc lights, textiles additives, paint siccatives, alloys for magnetic refrigeration, etc. Therefore, there is a strongly increasing worldwide research activity concerning rare-earth elements.

Thus, the upcoming Special Issue, entitled “Rare-Earth Compounds for Functional Applications”, aims to provide an overview of compounds based on rare-earth elements as advanced functional materials. Toward this end, it is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Gianfranco Dell’Agli
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • rare-earth elements
  • functional materials
  • ionic conductors
  • optical properties
  • catalysts
  • magnetic properties

Published Papers (1 paper)

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15 pages, 3440 KiB  
Article
Compositional Optimization and Structural Properties of the Filled Skutterudite Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb11.5Sn0.5
by Cristina Artini, Riccardo Carlini, Lara Gigli and Carlo Fanciulli
Metals 2020, 10(5), 692; https://doi.org/10.3390/met10050692 - 25 May 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2022
Abstract
A compositional and crystallographic study was carried out on the Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb11.5Sn0.5 filled skutterudite system (0.40 ≤ x ≤ 0.80) with the aim to determine the equilibrium Sm filling fraction (y [...] Read more.
A compositional and crystallographic study was carried out on the Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb11.5Sn0.5 filled skutterudite system (0.40 ≤ x ≤ 0.80) with the aim to determine the equilibrium Sm filling fraction (y) within the considered x range. The relevance of the material lies in its potential thermoelectric properties: in analogy with similar skutterudites systems, these features should in fact result as being improved with respect to the ones of the corresponding Sn-free system thanks to the partial substitution of Sn for Sb, which is expected to lower the phonon thermal conductivity. The results of Rietveld refinements allowed us to study the skutterudite structural properties and to discuss them, adopting a comparative approach with respect to the ones of the Sn-free system Smy(FexNi1−x)4Sb12. Relying on the refined Sm occupancy factors, the p/n crossover is shown to be located at x ~ 0.53, meaning that the introduction of Sn induces an enlargement of the p-region; moreover, at variance with the Sn-free system, the coefficient of thermal expansion does not show any significant mismatch between n- and p-compositions, which should ensure a prolonged lifetime of a device made of n- and p-legs that both derive from the studied system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rare-Earth Compounds for Advanced Functional Applications)
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