Synthesis and characterization of AgFeO₂ delafossite with non-stoichiometric silver concentration

The simple co-precipitation method was used to prepare Ag_xFeO₂ delafossite with non-stoichiometric silver concentration in the range of x = 0.05-1. The obtained material was investigated using X-ray powder diffraction and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy at room temperature. The structural and hyperfi ne interaction parameters were recognized in relation with decreasing silver concentration. The study revealed that the delafossite structure of Ag_xFeO₂ was maintained up to x = 0.9; as the range of silver concentration was decreased to 0.05 ≤ x ≤ 0.8, a mixture of AgFeO₂, Fe₂O₃ or/and FeOOH was formed.