Unconventional methods for the synthesis and characterization of Kagome intermetallics
Date
2024-08
Authors
Mantravadi, Aishwarya
Major Professor
Advisor
Zaikina, Julia
Kovnir, Kirill
Miller, Gordon
Huang, Wenyu
Smith, Emily
Committee Member
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Abstract
Kagome materials have generated significant attention owing to their unusual electronic and magnetic properties, and a search for novel Kagome materials remains a rewarding pursuit. However, the endeavor to discover new materials often presents challenges in their synthesis, demanding the development of innovative strategies. This work explores and establishes the success of one such innovative synthesis strategy, the ‘hydride route’, wherein the alkali metal (A) is replaced with its powder-like alkali metal hydride (AH). Such synthesis approach was applied for preparation of several new Kagome compounds. The efficacy of hydride route was first tested for synthesis of known Kagome compounds in the Li-Fe-Ge system. The hydride route allowed for the bulk preparation of the compositionally similar LiFe6Ge4, LiFe6Ge5, and LiFe6Ge6 Kagome compounds in high yield. The availability of polycrystalline powders for the Li-Fe-Ge ternary phases enabled the experimental characterization of their material properties, eventually allowing testing of the predicted magnetic properties for them. Following this, the route was extended to the K-V-Sb system, resulting in the discovery of the KV6Sb6 Kagome compound. KV6Sb6 displays a layered structure with alternating cationic K+ and anionic [V6Sb6]- layers, which promoted us to explore doping and deintercalation for KV6Sb6. This exploration led to the synthesis of the novel KV6-xMxSb6 (M = Cr,Fe, Co) and the metastable K0.09V6Sb6 Kagome compounds. The structure of the compounds was established using unconventional approaches and low-temperature magnetic and transport properties are presented. This work reports on the use of hydride route for facile synthesis of Kagome compounds, ranging from germanides to antimonides, highlighting the need of unconventional synthetic method toward accelerated material discovery. Additionally, the work offers details on offbeat methods for structural elucidation of compounds for which single crystals suitable for SC-XRD study cannot be grown. The non-traditional material synthesis and characterization strategies discussed herein can be extended to various systems and material classes for an in-depth investigation of structure-property relationships in inorganic materials.
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