Electronic structure and chemical bonding of nc-TiC/a-C nanocomposites

Abstract

The electronic structure of nanocrystalline (nc-) TiC/amorphous C nanocomposites has been investigated by soft x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy. The measured spectra at the Ti 2p and C 1s thresholds of the nanocomposites are compared to those of Ti metal and amorphous C. The corresponding intensities of the electronic states for the valence and conduction bands in the nanocomposites are shown to strongly depend on the TiC carbide grain size. An increased charge-transfer between the Ti 3d-eg states and the C 2p states has been identified as the grain size decreases, causing an increased ionicity of the TiC nanocrystallites. It is suggested that the charge-transfer occurs at the interface between the nanocrystalline TiC and the amorphous C matrix and represents an interface bonding which may be essential for the understanding of the properties of nc-TiC/amorphous C and similar nanocomposites.

13 pages, 6 figures, 1 table; http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.235108

References in corpus (7)

• Bonding mechanism in the nitrides Ti2AlN and TiN: an experimental and theoretical investigation
• Electronic structure and chemical bonding in Ti2AlC investigated by soft x-ray emission spectroscopy
• Electronic structure investigation of Ti3AlC2, Ti3SiC2, and Ti3GeC2 by soft-X-ray emission spectroscopy
• The electronic structure of polyaniline and doped phases studied by soft X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopies
• Energy Dependence of Cu L2,3 Satellites using Synchrotron Excited X-ray Emission Spectroscopy
• Large magnetic circular dichroism in resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Mn L-edge of Mn-Zn ferrite
• The electronic structure of poly(pyridine-2,5-diyl) investigated by soft x-ray absorption and emission spectroscopies

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Chemical bonding and electronic-structure in MAX phases as viewed by X-ray spectroscopy and density functional theory
• Crystallization characteristics and chemical bonding properties of nickel carbide thin film nanocomposites
• Electronic Structure and Chemical Bonding of Amorphous Chromium Carbide Thin Films
• The electronic-structure origin of the anisotropic thermopower of nanolaminated Ti3SiC2 determined by polarized x-ray spectroscopy and Seebeck measurements
• Structure and Bonding in Amorphous Cr1-xCx Nanocomposite Thin Films: X-ray Absorption Spectra and First-Principles Calculation
• Bonding Structures of ZrHx Thin Films by X-ray Spectroscopy
• Compositional dependence of epitaxial Tin+1SiCn MAX-phase thin films grown from a Ti3SiC2 compound target
• The origin of anisotropy and high density of states in the electronic structure of Cr${}_2$GeC by means of polarized soft X-ray spectroscopy and ab initio calculations
• Reactive magnetron sputtering of tungsten target in krypton/trimethylboron atmosphere
• Interface Bonding of Zr1-xAlxN Nanocomposites Investigated by X-ray Spectroscopies and First Principles Calculations
• Structural and magnetic properties of co-sputtered Fe0.8C0.2 thin films
• Electronic and structural properties of crystalline and amorphous (TaNbHfTiZr)C from first principles