STRUCTURAL ASPECTS OF LITHIUM INTERCALATED PBVS3, PBTIS3, PBTI2S5 AND SNNBS3 MISFIT LAYER COMPOUNDS

The room-temperature lithium intercalation of various misfit layered compounds such as PbVS3, PbTiS3, PbTi2S5 and SnNbS3 was studied. The results obtained indicate that the incoming lithium ions first induce a marked distortion of MS layers with NaCl-type structure of above mentioned specimens, while M'S2 layers undergo very small changes. The distortion of MS layers leads to three different orientations of cubic lamellae which may be due to Li+ (guest)-M2+ (host) repulsive forces. The screening of transition metals by sulfur atoms retains the structure of M'S2 sublattices. Further lithiation increases the lithium contents to such a level that the stacking sequences of the M'S2 layers are destroyed. Under these conditions, complete amorphization of all the systems was observed. An ordered structure was again obtained on deintercalation.