The NO intercalation properties of substituted double-layered
cuprates,
La2-x
Ba
x
SrCu2O6,
have been studied by means of XRD, ED, HREM, and FT-IR. The NO
absorbability was
strongly influenced not only by the amount of Ba substitution but also
by the pretreatment
with saturated water vapor at 60 °C. The Ba substitution leads
to √2a × √2a and 3a ×
3a
superstructures, which are associated with the ordering of Ba and
oxygen vacancies,
respectively. The sample with the superstructure showed rapid NO
uptake at 250 °C only
after water vapor treatment. The XRD measurement demonstrates a
two-stage lattice
expansion along the c axis after reactions with water vapor
and subsequently with NO.
The parallel HREM study suggests that the expanded structure is
due to the insertion of
H2O and NO species into interlayers between bottom planes
of CuO5 pyramids. Aging the
sample in water vapor leads to the formation of interlayer hydroxyl
groups, which are
effective in promoting NO intercalation by expanding the interlayer
spacing between the
CuO5 sheets.