Disordering and grain boundaries of (Ni,Fe)Cr2O4 spinels from atomistic calculations.

A novel empirical potential has been developed to evaluate the thermodynamic stability of Ni(1-x)Fe(x)Cr2O4 spinels. The simulations confirm the hypothesis that the NiCr2O4-FeCr2O4 pseudo-binary has normal structure spinel up to 1000 K and stabilizes as a solid solution. However, the disordering energy (normal to inverse spinel) is found higher for FeCr2O4 than for NiCr2O4 spinel. The formation energies of tilt, twist, and random grain boundaries have been calculated in pure NiCr2O4 and FeCr2O4. The same behavior has been found for both spinels. Detail analysis of the grain boundaries structure shows that the cation coordination number is a key parameter for the stability of the grain boundaries. With this criterion, we evidenced that the structural and energetic differences are caused only by nickel and iron cations.