Microstructure and metal-insulator transition in single crystalline KMo4O6

• Main Authors: Margareth Andrade, Mariana Lanzoni Maffei, Leandro Marcos Salgado Alves, Carlos Alberto Moreira dos Santos, Bento Ferreira, Antonio Fernando Sartori
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Metalurgia e Materiais (ABM); Associação Brasileira de Cerâmica (ABC); Associação Brasileira de Polímeros (ABPol) 2012-12-01
• Series: Materials Research
• Subjects: KMo4O6; single crystal; low-dimensional system
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-14392012000600025
• ISSN: 1516-1439

High quality KMo4O6 single crystals with tetragonal structure (space group P4/mbm) have been prepared by fused salt electrolysis. The crystals were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffractometry, electrical resistivity, and magnetization measurements. X-ray powder diffraction patterns and SEM have given some information on the growth of single crystals. Electrical resistivity as a function of temperature shows that the KMo4O6 compound is a bad metal with resistivity change of approximately 30% in the temperature range from 2 to 300K. A metal-insulator transition (MIT), observed at approximately 110K, has been also confirmed for this material. Magnetization as a function of temperature agrees with previous report, however a magnetic ordering has been observed in M(H) curves in the whole temperature range.