Syntheses, crystal structures, and resistivities of the two new ternary uranium selenides, Er3USe8 and Yb3USe8

Jai Prakash, Adel Mesbah, Jessica C. Beard, Christos D. Malliakas, James A. Ibers*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Two new ternary lanthanide (Ln) uranium selenides, Er3USe8 and Yb3USe8, were synthesized at 1198 K using NaI as a flux. Single-crystal X-ray studies show these two compounds to be isostructural and to crystallize in space group D2h11-Pbcm of the orthorhombic crystal system. The Ln and U atoms are disordered on the same crystallographic site in these crystal structures. Each Ln/U atom is coordinated to eight Se atoms in a bicapped trigonal prism, and sharing of these (Ln/U)Se8 units creates a three-dimensional network. Se2 atoms are connected to each other to form infinite one-dimensional chains along the c axis. In these chains, the two Se atoms are separated by about 2.74 Å, a distance intermediate to those of a Se-Se single bond and a van der Waals interaction. Temperature-dependent resistivity measurements show that Er3USe8 and Yb3USe8 are semiconductors with activation energies of 0.08(1) and 0.17(1) eV, respectively.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)90-94
Number of pages5
JournalJournal of Solid State Chemistry
Volume233
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016

Funding

Use was made of the IMSERC X-ray Facility at Northwestern University, supported by the International Institute of Nanotechnology (IIN). C.D.M. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences , under Contract no. DE-AC02-06CH11357 .

Keywords

  • Crystal structure
  • Lanthanide uranium selenides
  • Resistivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Ceramics and Composites
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

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