Stoichiography for investigation of the functional materials composition,structure, and properties

Principles of the stoichiography and differential dissolution method (DD) providing deep insight into the composition of mixtures containing unknown chemical compounds are considered. Compounds can be identified using their primary feature — the stoichiometry of elemental composition; reference samples of the compounds are not needed. The DD method makes it possible to analyze mixtures of crystalline and/or amorphous phases with constant and/or variable composition in the form of dispersed powders, ceramics, crystals, thin films and nanosize objects. Various aspects of the stoichiography and DD method application to investigation of composition, structure and properties of the functional materials are discussed.