Study of Phase Transitions in WO3 with a High-Temperature X-Ray Diffractometer

WO3 undergoes a phase transformation from monoclinic to orthorhombic at approximately 320°C and from orthorhombic to tetragonal at 720°C. A detailed study of the variation of the unit cell dimensions over the range from room temperature to 1000°C has been carried out using high-temperature x-ray diffraction techniques. Some unique features of the apparatus are described in this paper. Between the 320°C and 720°C transformations, the a and c axes increase uniformly in length while the b axis decreases. There is a marked increase in the volume of the unit cell below the orthorhombic to tetragonal transformation; the volume decreases sharply in the transformation and resumes its ``normal'' increase above 720°C.