Phase Transitions of BiVO<sub>4</sub> under High Pressure and High Temperature
Josu Sánchez-Martín, Daniel Errandonea, Julio Pellicer‐Porres, D. Vázquez-Socorro, D. Martínez‐García, S.N. Achary, Cătălin Popescu
Abstract
We have studied the occurrence of phase transitions in two polymorphs of BiVO4 under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions by means of X-ray diffraction measurements. The fergusonite polymorph undergoes a phase transition at 1.5(1) GPa and room temperature into a tetragonal scheelite-type structure. The same transition takes place at 523(1) K and ambient pressure. A second phase transition takes place at room temperature under compression at 16(1) GPa. The transition is from the tetragonal scheelite structure to a monoclinic structure (space group P21/c). All observed phase transitions are reversible. The zircon polymorph counterpart also transforms under compression into the scheelite-type structure. In this case, the transitions take place at 4.3(1) GPa and room temperature and at 653(1) K and ambient pressure. The zircon–scheelite transition is nonreversible. The experiments support that the fergusonite–scheelite transformation is a second-order transition and that the zircon–scheelite transformation is a first-order transition. Finally, we have also determined the compressibility and the thermal expansion of the fergusonite, scheelite, and zircon phases.