Synthesis, investigation on the crystal structure by Rietveld refinement of the double perovskite Ba0,4Sr1,6NiMoO6 A. EL Aamrani1. Bouchaib Manoun1*. R. Abkar1. Y. Tamraoui1. F. Mirinioui1. S. Benmokhtar2 and P. Lazor3 1

Laboratoire des Sciences des Matériaux, des milieux et de la modélisation (LS3M), FPK, Khouribga. Université Hassane Ier, Morocco. 2 LRCPGM, Laboratoire de Recherche de Chimie-Physique Générale des Matériaux, Département de Chimie, Faculté des Sciences Ben M’Sik Casablanca, Maroc. 3 Departement of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, SE-752 36, Uppsala, Sweden *Corresponding author email: [email protected]

Keywords : Double perovskite, Phase transition, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Ba0,4Sr1,6NiMoO6 The double-perovskite oxides of general formula AA’MM’O6, in which A and A' are rare earth metal (Ca2+ , Sr2+ or Ba2+ …) and M and M’ are transition metal cations, constitute a wide family of materials displaying varied and appealing electronic and magnetic properties. Recently, a few detailed structural studies have shown that double perovskites exhibit diverse properties such as ferroelectricity[1], ferri- and ferromagnetic[2], superconductivity[3] and catalytic properties[4], etc. The renewed interests in these compounds arise because of the room temperature colossal magneto-resistance (CMR) discovery in Sr2FeMoO6. Owing to their potential applications arising from their interesting electrical and magnetic properties, extensive studies relating to different aspects of double perovskites have been made. In addition to their technological applications, these perovskites are also of crystallographic interest. In this work, we report that the perovskite Ba0.4Sr1.6NiMoO6 was prepared in polycrystalline form by thermal treatment, in air. The latter crystallizes in the tetragonal system, with I4/m space group at room temperature. The crystal structure was solved by the Rietveld refinement of X-ray powder diffraction patterns. References: [1] Claude Ederer, Nicola A. Spaldin - Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science 9 (2005) 128–139 [2] J.B. Goodenough, J.M. Longo, in: Landolt-Börnstein. Numerical Data and Functional Relationships in Science and Technology, New Series, Group III: Crystal and Solid State Physics. Vol. 4: Magnetic and Other Properties of Oxides and Related Compounds, Part a, Springer, Berlin, 1970, p. 126. [3] R.J. Cava, B. Batlogg, J.J. Krajewski, R. Farrow, L.W. Rupp, A.E. White, K. Short, W.F. Peck, T. Kometani, Nature 332 (1988) 814. [4] M. Misono, Catalysis Today 144 (2009) 285–291