Phase competition in bismuth layered structure based on first principles thermodynamics

The difficulties of synthesis of pure Aurivillius phases largely impede them from extensive application. In this work, the first principles thermodynamics approach was applied to investigate the phase competition relation of three homologous Aurivillius series CaBi2Nb2O9-nNaNbO(3), Bi4Ti3O12-nSrTiO(3) and Bi4Ti3O12-nCaTiO(3), in order to uncover the thermodynamic mechanism of the phase stability. The competition among different phases was analyzed by the relative Gibbs energy as a function of chemical potential of perovskite unit. The analysis reveals that most phases are able to overcome others to be the most stable ones in a certain range as chemical potential increases, which can be applied to interpret the relevant experimental phenomena including the phase mixture and disordered structures. Temperature dependence of phase competition evolutions are also studied based on the configurational and vibrational entropy effect, the former effect changes the competition relations of different phases, while the latter only increases the stable range of the lower phases.