Synthesis and characterization of pure and Mn-substituted YAl1.15(CO3)yO3+δ: A variation from the classical hexagonal YAlO3

Recent works describing the existence of an intense-blue color within the YIn1-xMnxO3 solid solution due to the presence of Mn3+ cations in trigonal-bipyramidal sites have led to the interest to prepare Al-analogues with the same 5-fold non-centrosymetric coordination. In this framework, YAlO3 structure has been recently re-examined, concluding the aluminate is indeed an oxycarbonate with the Y3Al3O8CO3 stoichiometry. In this work, we ob served that pure yttrium aluminate is not only obtained for fast thermal treatments below 1000 degrees C but with higher Al:Y ratio than 1:1. YAl1.15(CO3)(y)O3+delta. The corresponding YAl1.15-xMnx(CO3)(y)O3+delta solid solutions were successfully prepared showing dull brown colors for the low Mn-content in comparison to Yin(1-x)Mn(x)O(3) series, confirming that the TBP coordination is lost in the aluminate, partly due to the presence of carbonate groups in the structure.