Soft Chemical Approaches to the Synthesis of Metastable Materials
Abstract
We synthesized and characterized several new compounds using soft chemistry methods, including: MoBi2, BiVO3, InBi, Cu3Pb, Ni3Pb2, nanoparticles of Pd1-xNixBi2. We also expanded our synthetic studies to ternary compounds with promising transition-metal Bi sublattices To complement our high-pressure experiments, we developed computational capabilities aimed at mapping high-pressure phase space using unbiased ab initio high throughput random structure searches. This computational approach not only promoted our understanding of known high-pressure chemistry, it directed our synthetic efforts, resulting in the discovery of the first structurally characterized MoBi intermetallic material. Our computations suggested this material possesses a uniquely stable ordered structure in a region of phase space in which elemental alloying is prevalent. This structure type is also accessed by multiple other Bi transition metal (TM)mixtures at high-pressures, but has not been recovered to ambient conditions. Promisingly, calculations examining the phonon properties of this material reveal a phase change to a lower symmetry polymorph which is stable to ambient pressures and will be pursued experimentally. This result also suggests chemical substitutions across these TMBi phases may be a productive route to control their properties and recover them to ambient conditions. A manuscript reporting this discovery and acknowledging AFOSR was recently reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 18, 2024
- Accession Number
- AD1231220
Entities
People
- Rondinelli James
Organizations
- Northwestern University