Thermal
behavior of the orthorhombic (α) and triclinic (β)
polymorphs of BiNbO4 was studied by the methods of high-temperature
powder X-ray diffraction (HTPXRD) and differential scanning calorimetry
(DCS) in the temperature range 25–1200 °C. The study revealed
the sequence of thermal phase transformations and the new high-temperature
modification, γ-BiNbO4, which was formed above 1001
°C and existed up to the melting temperature of BiNbO4. The incongruent melting of BiNbO4 was characterized
by the formation of the cubic phase with the approximate composition
Bi3NbO7. The HTPXRD method was used in this
study to evaluate thermal deformations and to calculate thermal-expansion
coefficients (TEC) of the three modifications of BiNbO4 (α, β, and γ). The average volumetric TECs of
these three modifications were in the range 19–36 × 10–6 °C–1. The triclinic phase
β-BiNbO4 demonstrated the highest anisotropy of thermal
expansion. α-BiNbO4 was characterized by the minimal
TEC and anisotropy, which indicated its greatest stability. The crystal
structure of γ-BiNbO4 was determined at 1100 °C
using powder data and was refined using the Rietveld method (the α-LaTaO4 structural type, the space group Cmc21, a = 3.95440(3) Å, b = 15.0899(1) Å, c = 5.65524(5) Å, V = 337.458(5) Å3, R
wp = 4.82, R
Bragg = 3.61%). The
methods of thermal analysis and high-temperature powder X-ray diffraction
revealed that, during the heating, bismuth orthoniobate underwent
the following sequence of phase transitions: α-BiNbO4 → γ-BiNbO4 → β-BiNbO4 and β-BiNbO4 → γ-BiNbO4 → β-BiNbO4 or, at slow heating, β-BiNbO4 → (α-BiNbO4) → γ-BiNbO4 → β-BiNbO4, where γ-BiNbO4 is the high-temperature phase of bismuth orthoniobate.