ON THE SUBSTITUTION OF LITHIUM IN COPPER-OXIDE

The extent of solubility of Li+ in monoclinic CuO and its effect on th e crystal structure and electrical behaviour have been studied employi ng different experimental techniques. It is found that (i) the extent of lithium incorporation in CuO is limited to less-than-or-equal-to 25 at%, (ii) the defect compounds, Cu1-xLixO1-delta, are formed without a ltering the crystal structure and (iii) the resistivity decreases with increase in Li concentration. Further, it is observed that these comp ounds continue to exhibit semiconducting (drho/dT < 0) behaviour.