Abstract - PC 2016

Complexity in Borides: exotic solids or useful materials?
Barbara Albert 1
1
Eduard-Zintl-Institute of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Technische Universität Darmstadt Germany
[email protected]
Metal borides1 are inorganic solids that often show refractory properties, like super-hardness 2
and very high-melting points. They may also prove to be exciting concerning their electronic
structure, as shown for super-conducting magnesium diboride, MgB 2,3 or samarium hexaboride,
SmB6,4 which was recently found to be a topological insulator.
New investigations on nanoscale and bulk mono-, di- tetra-, and hexaborides will be presented.
Examples are MnB4, crystallizing similar to hypothetical tetragonal diamond but exhibiting an
unexpected Peierls distortion,5,6 solid solutions of (M,M')B6 with good thermoelectric properties,7
and nanoscale metal borides that can be (ferro)magnetic.8 Synthesis, characterization, structures,
and properties will be discussed.
References
1. B. Albert, H. Hillebrecht, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48 (2009) 8640-8668
2. R. Mohammadi, A.T. Lech, M. Xie, B. E. Weaver, M. T. Yeung, S. H. Tolbert, R. B. Kaner, PNAS 108
(2011) 10958-10962
3. J. Nagamatsu, N. Nakagawa,T. Muranaka, J. Akimitsu,Y. Zenitani, Nature (2001) 63-64
4. D. J. Kim, J. Xia, Z. Fisk, Nature Materials 13 (2014) 466-470
5. A. Knappschneider, C. Litterscheid, N.C. George, J. Brgoch, N. Wagner, J. Beck. J.A. Kurzman, R.
Seshadri, B. Albert, Angew. Chem. 126 (2014) 1710-1714, Int. Ed. Engl. 53 (2014) 1684-1688
6. A. Knappschneider, C. Litterscheid, J. Brgoch, N. C. George, S. Henke, A. K. Cheetham, J. G. Hu, R.
Seshadri, B. Albert, Chem. Eur. J. 21 (2015), 8177-8181
7. M. Gürsoy, M. Takeda, and B. Albert, J. Solid State Chem. 221 (2015) 191-195
8. S. Rades, S. Kraemer, R. Seshadri, B. Albert, Chem. Mater. (2014) 1549-1552