Thermal stability and structural aspects of Y_1-xPr_xBa₂Cu₃O_7-y solid solution

The complete Y_1-xPr_xBa₂Cu₃O_7-y solid solution has been studied from the point of view of thermodynamic and structural properties. DTA measurements allowed us to determine the trend of the peritectic decomposition temperature and the eutectic one vs. the increasing of Pr content. These data can give some information about the primary crystallisation field of these phases. FT-IR/FT-FIR skeletal characterisation of the solid solution presents the vibrational modes of both YBCO and PrBCO phases; the increasing of one component percentage inside the solution gives rise to a progressive shift of the peaks towards the corresponding frequencies of the end compounds. One of the vibrational modes, assigned to the asymmetric strain of the 0-Cu-O units in the 0-deficient compounds, seems to be very sensitive to the oxygen content in the samples.