Silver intercalation in titanium disulphide

In order to study the intercalation process of Ag into the layered crystal TiS2, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) measurements have been p erformed using the Nuclear Microprobe at the Microanalytical Research Centr e, University of Melbourne. The focused ion beam allows the three-dimension al distribution of the intercalate in the bulk material to be determined wi th micron lateral resolution. The data exhibit a sharp intercalation front. Silver was found to be present over the whole investigated area of the cry stal but only over the first 100 nm in depth. In deeper layers the intercal ation was restricted to the border zone of the crystal edge. After 10 min i ntercalation time, the intercalation front has moved 70 mu m laterally from the crystal edge and after 2.5 h it has moved 160 mu m. The stoichiometry of the Ag changes from 0.38-0.42 indicating a first-stage phase in the near -surface region to 0.14-0.2 (second-stage phase) in deeper layers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.