Iridium(IV) oxide
chemical compound
Iridium(IV) oxide, IrO2, is the only well-characterised oxide of iridium. It is a blue-black solid, used with other rare oxides to coat anodes.
Structure
The compound adopts the TiO2 rutile structure, featuring six coordinate iridium and three coordinate oxygen. It forms a tetragonal lattice with lattice parameters of 4.5Å and 3.15Å.
Mechanical properties
Iridium oxide does not easily deform under stress, instead cracking easily. Measured deflections of a thin, cantilevered iridium oxide film indicate a Young’s modulus of 300 ± 15 GPa, substantially lower than the Young's modulus of metallic iridium (517 GPa).
Synthesis
As described by its discoverers, it can be formed by treating the green form of iridium trichloride with oxygen at high temperatures:
2 IrCl3 + 2 O2 → 2 IrO2 + 3 Cl2
A hydrated form is also known.
Applications
Iridium dioxide can be used to make coated electrodes for industrial electrolysis or as microelectrodes for electrophysiology. In electrolytic applications, IrO2 films evolve O2 efficiently.
Electrode manufacture typically requires high-temperature annealing.
Fracture and delamination are well-known problems when fabricating devices that incorporate iridium oxide film.
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