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A thermochemical approach to the bandgaps of semiconducting and insulating materials

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Abstract

Many materials of practical interest are either semiconducting or insulating in nature. One of the most important quantities characterising these materials, therefore, is the energy bandgap. In the present article, procedures available for estimating the bandgaps of binary, inorganic materials from thermochemical and related data have been briefly reviewed with special emphasis on recent work.

It has been shown that heats of formation per equivalent and heats of atomisation per equivalent may be used for approximate prediction of bandgaps of these materials. Theoretical origins of the correlation of bandgaps to heats of formation, heats of atomisation, lattice energies, single bond energies and average bond energies etc., have been indicated.

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Vijh, A.K. A thermochemical approach to the bandgaps of semiconducting and insulating materials. J Mater Sci 5, 379–384 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00549998

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00549998

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