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    Mixed dysprosium-lanthanide nitride clusterfullerenes DyM2N@C80-: I h and Dy2MN@C80- i h (M = Gd, Er, Tm, and Lu): Synthesis, molecular structure, and quantum motion of the endohedral nitrogen atom
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2019) Schlesier, C.; Liu, F.; Dubrovin, V.; Spree, L.; Büchner, B.; Avdoshenko, S.M.; Popov, A.A.
    Systematic exploration of the synthesis of mixed-metal Dy-M nitride clusterfullerenes (NCFs, M = Gd, Er, Tm, Lu) is performed, and the impact of the second metal on the relative yield is evaluated. We demonstrate that the ionic radius of the metal appears to be the main factor allowing explanation of the relative yields in Dy-M mixed-metal systems with M = Sc, Lu, Er, and Gd. At the same time, Dy-Tm NCFs show anomalously low yields, which is not consistent with the relatively small ionic radius of Tm3+ but can be explained by the high third ionization potential of Tm. Complete separation of Dy-Gd and Dy-Er, as well as partial separation of Dy-Lu M3N@C80 nitride clusterfullerenes, is accomplished by recycling HPLC. The molecular structures of DyGd2N@C80 and DyEr2N@C80 are analyzed by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction. A remarkable ordering of mixed-metal nitride clusters is found despite similar size and electronic properties of the metals. Possible pyramidalization of the nitride clusters in these and other nitride clusterfullerenes is critically analyzed with the help of DFT calculations and reconstruction of the nitrogen inversion barrier in M3N@C80 molecules is performed. Although a double-well potential with a pyramidal cluster structure is found to be common for most of them, the small size of the inversion barrier often leads to an apparent planar structure of the cluster. This situation is found for those M3N@C80 molecules in which the energy of the lowest vibrational level exceeds that of the inversion barrier, including Dy3N@C80 and DyEr2N@C80. The genuine pyramidal structure can be observed by X-ray diffraction only when the lowest vibrational level is below the inversion barrier, such as those found in Gd3N@C80 and DyGd2N@C80. The quantum nature of molecular vibrations becomes especially apparent when the size of the inversion barrier is comparable to the energy of the lowest vibrational levels.
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    Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 single crystals towards high thermoelectric performance
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2020) Pan, Yu; Yao, Mengyu; Hong, Xiaochen; Zhu, Yifan; Fan, Fengren; Imasato, Kazuki; He, Yangkun; Hess, Christian; Fink, Jörg; Yang, Jiong; Büchner, Bernd; Fu, Chenguang; Snyder, G. Jeffrey; Felser, Claudia
    The rapid growth of the thermoelectric cooler market makes the development of novel room temperature thermoelectric materials of great importance. Ternary n-type Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 alloys are promising alternatives to the state-of-the-art Bi2(Te,Se)3 alloys but grain boundary resistance is the most important limitation. n-type Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 single crystals with negligible grain boundaries are expected to have particularly high zT but have rarely been realized due to the demanding Mg-rich growth conditions required. Here, we report, for the first time, the thermoelectric properties of n-type Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 alloyed single crystals grown by a one-step Mg-flux method using sealed tantalum tubes. High weighted mobility ∼140 cm2 V−1 s−1 and a high zT of 0.82 at 315 K are achieved in Y-doped Mg3Bi1.25Sb0.75 single crystals. Through both experimental angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and theoretical calculations, we denote the origin of the high thermoelectric performance from a point of view of band widening effect and electronegativity, as well as the necessity to form high Bi/Sb ratio ternary Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 alloys. The present work paves the way for further development of Mg3(Bi,Sb)2 for near room temperature thermoelectric applications.