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The effects of Zn 2+ incorporation on the phase formation, thermal expansion, phase transition, and vibrational properties of HfMg 1- x Zn x Mo 3 O 12 are investigated by XRD, dilatometry, and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that (i) single phase formation is only possible for x ≤ 0.5, otherwise, additional phases of HfMo 2 O 8 and ZnMoO 4 appear; (ii) The phase transition temperature from monoclinic to orthorhombic structure of the single phase HfMg 1- x Zn x Mo 3 O 12 can be well-tailored, which increases with the content of Zn 2+ ; (iii) The incorporation of Zn 2+ leads to an pronounced reduction in the positive expansion of the b -axis and an enhanced negative thermal expansion (NTE) in the c -axes, leading to a near-zero thermal expansion (ZTE) property with lower anisotropy over a wide temperature range; (iv) Replacement of Mg 2+ by Zn 2+ weakens the Mo-O bonds as revealed by obvious red shifts of all the Mo-O stretching modes with increasing the content of Zn 2+ and improves the sintering performance of the samples which is observed by SEM. The mechanisms of the negative and near-ZTE are discussed.

Intrinsic isotropic near-zero thermal expansion is discovered in borate crystal Zn 4 B 6 O 13 with high transparency in the ultraviolet region. First-principles calculations demonstrate that the very low thermal expansion originates mainly from the invariability of the solid [B 24 O 48 ] truncated octahedra that are fixed by the [Zn 4 O 13 ] clusters in the ZBO structure., (© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)