Oxygen surface exchange and diffusion in mayenite single crystal

Oxygen surface exchange and diffusion in Ca12Al14O33 +/-delta single crystal were studied by a unique in situ method based on isotope equilibration in the gas phase. Although the interphase exchange rate and oxygen diffusion coefficient demonstrate good agreement with available data, only the employed method is efficient to isolate the contributions of various types of exchange; thus, for the first time, it is possible to estimate the surface heterogeneity of mayenite. The obtained results disprove conclusions previously developed in the literature; the temperature region of 750 degrees C to 850 degrees C is not the intermediate region where two types of oxygen diffusion coexist. Complex discussion of the accumulated information on the temperature-dependent properties of mayenite allowed us to represent a model describing the observed dependencies based on the near-surface layer stability in the studied temperature range.