Disordering and grain boundaries of (Ni,Fe)Cr2O4 spinels from atomistic calculations.

A novel empirical potential has been developed to evaluate the thermodynamic stability of Ni(1-x)Fe(x)Cr2O4 spinels. The simulations confirm the hypothesis that the NiCr2O4-FeCr2O4 pseudo-binary has normal structure spinel up to 1000 K and stabilizes as a solid solution. However, the disordering energy (normal to inverse spinel) is found higher for FeCr2O4 than for NiCr2O4 spinel.