| Abstract: | The reversible phase transformation of AgNO3 is studied. Dielectric constant, d.c. resistivity, differential thermal analysis (DTA) and dilatometric measurements show the occurrence of a reversible phase transition II→I at 160°C with heat of transformation H = 0.78 kcal/mol. The thermal hysteresis in this reversible transformation is examined, the magnitude of the temperature hysteresis does not exceed 12°C. An acceptable agreement is observed between the measured values of the transition temperature obtained by three different experimental techniques. The dilatometric analysis shows that this transition is accompanied by thermal shrinkage with relative shrinkage coefficient 8 × 10?4. Thermal analysis are also used to get thermodynamic and kinetic data of this phase transition. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and d.c. resistivity for single crystals as well as polycrystalline samples of AgNO3 have clearly located and confirm the phase transitions II→I→II with a strong support to its thermal hysteresis character. The conduction mechanism is found to be activated by energy 0.12 eV for phase I and 0.36 eV for phase II. The observed thermal behaviour of the various measured parameters is attributed to orientational disorder of the nitrate group leading to an order-disorder phase transition which is reported here for first time in AgNO3. |
