Combining Al Solid-State NMR and First-Principles Simulations To Explore Crystal Structure in Disordered Aluminum Oxynitride.

The nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique gives insight into the local information in a crystal structure, while Rietveld refinement of powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) sketches out the framework of a crystal lattice. In this work, first-principles calculations were combined with the solid-state NMR technique and Rietveld refinement to explore the crystal structure of a disordered aluminum oxynitride (γ-alon). The theoretical NMR parameters (chemical shift, δ, quadrupolar coupling constants, C, and asymmetry parameter, η) of AlON, predicted by the gauge-including projector augmented wave (GIPAW) algorithm, were used to facilitate the analytical investigation of the Al magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra of the as-prepared sample, whose formula was confirmed to be AlON by quantitative analysis. The experimental δ, C, and η of Al showed a small discrepancy compared with theoretical models. The ratio of aluminum located at the 8a to 16d sites was calculated to be 0.531 from the relative integration of peaks in the Al NMR spectra. The occupancies of aluminum at the 8a and 16d positions were determined through NMR investigations to be 0.9755 and 0.9178, respectively, and were used in the Rietveld refinement to obtain the lattice parameter and anion parameter of AlON. The results from Al NMR investigations and PXRD structural refinement complemented each other. This work provides a powerful and accessible strategy to precisely understand the crystal structure of novel oxynitride materials with multiple disorder.