Tuesday, May 29, 2012

The Structure of Gadolinium(III) Oxide

 Gadolinium(III) oxide

Gadolinium oxide (archaically gadolinia) is a inorganic compound with the formula Gd2O3. It is one of the most commonly available forms of the rare earth element gadolinium, derivatives of which are potential contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging.

Gadolinium oxide has two most common structures: monoclinic (Pearson symbol mS30, space group C2/m, No. 12) and cubic (cI80, Ia3, No. 206). The cubic structure is similar to that of manganese(III) oxide, which, as a mineral, is also called bixbyite (then with a minor iron(III) content). There are two types of gadolinium sites in the cubic structure, both with a coordination number of 6 but with different geometry of the surrounding oxygen atoms. At room temperature, the cubic structure is the most stable and a phase change to the monoclinic structure takes place at 1200 °C. From 2100 °C and up to the melting point at 2420 °C, a hexagonal phase dominates.

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