Oxidation Mechanism of Copper Selenide

The oxidation mechanism of copper selenide was investigated at deselenization temperatures of copper refining anode slimes. The isothermal roasting of synthetic, massive copper selenide in flowing oxygen and oxygen – 20% sulfur dioxide mixtures at 450–550 °C indicate that in both atmospheres the mass of Cu2Se increases as a function of time, due to formation of copper selenite as an intermediate product. Copper selenide oxidises to copper oxides without formation of thick copper selenite scales, and a significant fraction of selenium is vaporized as SeO2(g). The oxidation product scales on Cu2Se are porous which allows transport of atmospheric oxygen to the reaction zone and selenium dioxide vapor to the surrounding gas. Predominance area diagrams of the copper-selenium system, constructed for selenium roasting conditions, indicate that the stable phase of copper in a selenium roaster gas with SO2 is the sulfate CuSO4. The cuprous oxide formed in decomposition of Cu2Se is further sulfated to CuSO4.

1212-Molybdo-Cuprates; effect of oxygenation in the structure, properties and electronic states

ABSTRACTThe influence of oxygenation in the magnetism, superconductivity and electronic states for the Mo0.3Cu0.7Sr2RECu2Oy (RE = Y, Er and Tm) compounds are discussed here. The magnetic measurements on the as-prepared (AP) samples suggest the existence of short-range magnetic correlations due to the presence of the paramagnetic MoV cations in the copper chain site. On the other hand, all the oxygenated samples are not magnetic but superconducting. The high pressure oxygenated sample shows the highest superconducting transition temperature of TC = 84 K. The influence of oxygenation in the electronic states for the Mo0.3Cu0.7Sr2YCu2Oy system associated with an oxidation reaction leading from a non-superconducting to a superconducting state has also been investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS measurements show the predominance of the MoV oxidation state over the MoVI one in the AP material; annealing under flowing oxygen enhances both the MoVI and CuII amounts. A detailed study of the electronic states for the Mo0.3Cu0.7Sr2YCu2Oy samples has been performed and is also discussed.

Transport Properties of Ru1Sr2Gd2-xCexCu2O10 Compounds

We have synthesized Ru1Sr2Gd2-xCexCu2O10 (Ru-1222) materials using several concentrations of Ce. All ruthenocuprate compounds have been characterised by using standard X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Micrographs (SEM). The concentration of Ce affects transport properties drastically. Compounds with x=0.5 remain nonsuperconducting with moderate resistivity even after annealing in different conditions. Enormous change in the normal state resistivity has been observed in different annealing conditions of Ru-1222 with x=0.5. Superconducting properties have been observed in compounds with x=0.65. The highest critical temperature obtained is 27.5K for x=0.65. In addition, the duration of annealing in flowing oxygen is found to be effective in changing the normal state resistivity for x=0.65.