Selective and low temperature transition metal intercalation in layered tellurides

Layered materials embrace rich intercalation reactions to accommodate high concentrations of foreign species within their structures, and find many applications spanning from energy storage, ion exchange to secondary batteries. Light alkali metals are generally most easily intercalated due to their light mass, high charge/volume ratio and in many cases strong reducing properties. An evolving area of materials chemistry, however, is to capture metals selectively, which is of technological and environmental significance but rather unexplored. Here we show that the layered telluride T2PTe2 (T=Ti, Zr) displays exclusive insertion of transition metals (for example, Cd, Zn) as opposed to alkali cations, with tetrahedral coordination preference to tellurium. Interestingly, the intercalation reactions proceed in solid state and at surprisingly low temperatures (for example, 80?°C for cadmium in Ti2PTe2). The current method of controlling selectivity provides opportunities in the search for new materials for various applications that used to be possible only in a liquid

X-Ray-Induced Stripes Dynamic in High-Temperature Superconductor Hg_0.8Tl_0.2Ba₂Ca₂Cu₃O_8+d

Neutron and X-ray diffraction studies of a powder sample of the high-temperature superconductor Hg0.8Tl0.2Ba2Ca2Cu3O8+delta have been performed in the temperature ranges 300-4.5 and 300-80K, respectively, to investigate a structural anomaly at similar to 138 K. We have found that this anomaly is connected to a distortion of the CuO2-layers. The X-ray intensity and wavelength influence have been investigated and a conclusion about a possible photo-domain effect is made. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.</p