• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제18권9호
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• pp.916-922
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• 1997

A superconducting phase La2CuO4+δ (Tc=44 K) has been prepared by electrochemical oxidation which allows the oxygen to intercalat into the La2O2 layers. According to the Cu K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopic analysis, the oxidized phase shows an overall spectra shift of about 0.5 eV to a higher energy region compared to the as sintered one with the occurrence of an additional peak corresponding to the transition to the |1s13dn+1L-14pσ1 > final state, indicating the oxidation of CuO2 layer. From the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies, it is found that the binding energy of La 3d5/2 is significantly shifted from 834.3 eV (as sintered La2CuO4) to 833.6 eV (as electrochemically oxidized La2CuO4+δ), implying that the covalency of the (La-O) bond is decreased due to the oxygen intercalation. The O 1s spectra do not provide an evidence of the superoxide or peroxide, but the oxide (O2-) with the contaminated carbonate (CO32-) based on the peaks at 529 eV and 532 eV, respectively, which is clearly confirmed by the Auger spectroscopic analysis. Oxygen contents determined by iodometric titration (δ=0.07) and thermogravimetry (δ=0.09) show good coincidence each other, also giving an evidence for the "O2-" nature of excess oxygen. From the above results, it is concluded that "O2-" appeared as O 1s peak at 528.6 eV is responsible for superconductivity of La2CuO4+δ.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제10권6호
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• pp.504-509
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• 1989

The effect of oxygen-deficiency on the charge distributions and orbital energies for small copper oxide clusters representing the superconducting materials $YBa_2Cu_3O_x (6{\leq}x{\leq}7)$ were investigated by the extended Huckel molecular orbital (EHMO) method with the tight-binding model. Our calculations show +3 oxidation state of Cu(1) in the $CuO_3$ chain and +2 or +1 of Cu(2) in the $CuO_2$ layers for $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ with the nominal charge of $Cu_3$ = +7 (or +5), while for $YBa_2Cu_3O_6$ +1 oxidation state of Cu(1) and +3 (or +2) of Cu(2) in the $CuO_2$ layers with the nominal charge of $Cu_3$ = +7 (or +5). For $Cu_3O_{12}$ cluster representing $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ with the nominal charge of $Cu_3$ = +7 the Cu(2) $d_{{x^2}-{y^2}}$ orbitals in the $CuO_2$ layers is a typical Jahn-Teller $d^9$ system with the partial hole and the Cu(1) $d_{{_z2}-{_y2}}$ orbital in the $CuO_3$ chain contains hole occupancy. For $Cu_3O_{10}$ cluster representing $YBa_2Cu_3O_6$ with the nominal charge of Cu = +5 the orbital character of the highest partially occupied MO (HPOMO) and the lowest completely unoccupied MO (LCUMO) of $Cu_3O_{12}$ representing $YBa_2Cu_3O_7$ with the nominal charge of $Cu_3$ = +7 is reversed, and the character of Cu(1) $d{{x^2}-{y^2}}$ orbital of LCUMO of the $Cu_3O_{12} $cluster is vanished. It is suggested that the local crystal field environment of Cu(1) by the oxygens in the Cu(1) chain may play a vital role in conductivity and superconductivity, either alone or through cooperative electronic coupling with the Cu(2) layers in $YBa_2Cu_3O_7.$.