Structural study of electrochemically-synthesized Ag2Cu2O4. A novel oxide sensitive to irradiation

The structure of Ag2Cu2O4 synthesized by electrochemical oxidation of its precursor Ag2Cu2O3 is studied under a new perspective. Irradiation of the oxide with X-ray beam transforms the electronic structure of the phase by redistributing the internal charge within the material. The refined structure shows several possibilities all with metals in the same arrangement, but with oxygen atoms distributed in a rather disordered way. This is typical of ionic conductors.
The authors want to thank the Fundación Domingo Martínez for a grant and the Ministry of Science for a fellowship for D.M. Rojas and for grants PB98-0491 and MAT98-0807-C02-02.