CUBIC RUBIDIUM NITRATE AT ROOM-TEMPERATURE

Cubic RbNO3 has been stabilized or is metastable at room temperature u sing the heating-cooling process which is described in the paper. The cubic lattice parameters aggree with that of RbNO3 for temperatures ab ove 160 degrees C, excluding the temperature influence. The cubic unit parameters are slightly changed with different heating temperatures, e.g. 8.495 +/- 0.005 Angstrom and 8.467 +/- 0.005 Angstrom for the 580 degrees C and 800 degrees C heat-treated RbNO3, the room temperature, metastable, cubic structure has a more distorted NO3 environment whic h is caused by the stronger metal-NO3 coordination bonds. The degree o f the coordination interaction is mainly characterized by the v(3) ban d splitting.