COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOME PHYSICOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF BULK CHALCOGENIDES FROM THE GeTe4-Cu, GeTe5-Cu AND GeTe6-Cu SYSTEMS

Abstract

The article compares several physicochemical properties, such as density, molar volume, compactness, and free volume percentage, of bulk chalcogenides from the systems (GeTe₄)1_00-xCu_x, (GeTe₅)_100-xCu_x, and (GeTe₆)_100-xCu_x, where x = 5, 10, 15, and 20 mol %. The influence of the Ge/Te ratio and copper content on the physicochemical performance of the studied compositions is discussed and explained from a structural point of view. The results show that a higher Te content in the Ge/Te ratio leads to an increase in structural flexibility, whereas the incorporation of Cu modifies the configuration of the structure, which in turn causes nonlinear changes in the physicochemical properties.