Effect of Thermal Gradients on Ionic Defects in Wustite

The thermal gradient response of ionic defects in wustite was studied using two methods. The first involved measuring the decay of the thermoelectric voltage of a sample with time in a thermal gradient. The second involved measuring concentration gradients in samples which had been annealed in a thermal gradient for an extended amount of time. Both types of experiments gave results that could be predicted by assuming that the behavior of ionic defects in a thermal gradient is determined primarily by the local equilibrium of the sample with the gas phase.