An unexpected cubic symmetry in group IV alloys prepared using pressure and temperature

The cubic diamond (Fd-3m) group IVA element Si has been the material driver of the electronics industry since its inception. We report synthesis of a new cubic (Im-3m) group IVA material, a GeSn solid solution, upon heating Ge and Sn at pressures from 13 to 28 GPa using double-sided diamond anvil laser-heating and large volume press methods. Both methods were coupled with in-situ angle dispersive X-ray diffraction characterization. The new material substantially enriches the seminal group IVA alloy materials landscape by introducing an eightfold coordinated cubic symmetry, which markedly expands on the conventional tetrahedrally coordinated cubic one. This cubic solid solution is formed, despite Ge never adopting the Im-3m symmetry, melting inhibiting subsequent Im-3m formation and reactant Ge and Sn having unlike crystal structures and atomic radii at all these pressures. This is hence achieved without adherence to conventional formation criteria and routes to synthesis. This advance creates fertile avenues for new materials development

Na–Ni–H phase formation at high pressures and high temperatures: hydrido complexes [NiH5]3– versus the perovskite NaNiH3

The Na-Ni-H system was investigated by in situ synchrotron diffraction studies of reaction mixtures NaH-Ni-H-2 at around 5, 10, and 12 GPa. The existence of ternary hydrogen-rich hydrides with compositions Na3NiH5 and NaNiH3, where Ni attains the oxidation state II, is demonstrated. Upon heating at similar to 5 GPa, face-centered cubic (fcc) Na3NiH5 forms above 430 degrees C. Upon cooling, it undergoes a rapid and reversible phase transition at 330 degrees C to an orthorhombic (Cmcm) form. Upon pressure release, Na3NiH5 further transforms into its recoverable Pnma form whose structure was elucidated from synchrotron powder diffraction data, aided by first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Na3NiH5 features previously unknown square pyramidal 18- electron complexes NiH53-. In the high temperature fcc form, metal atoms are arranged as in the Heusler structure, and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the complexes are dynamically disordered. The Heusler-type metal partial structure is essentially maintained in the low temperature Cmcm form, in which NiH53- complexes are ordered. It is considerably rearranged in the low pressure Pnma form. Experiments at 10 GPa showed an initial formation of fcc Na3NiH5 followed by the addition of the perovskite hydride NaNiH3, in which Ni(II) attains an octahedral environment by H atoms. NaNiH3 is recoverable at ambient pressures and represents the sole product of 12 GPa experiments. DFT calculations show that the decomposition of Na3NiH5 = NaNiH3 + 2 NaH is enthalpically favored at all pressures, suggesting that Na3NiH5 is metastable and its formation is kinetically favored. Ni-H bonding in metallic NaNiH3 is considered covalent, as in electron precise Na3NiH5, but delocalized in the polyanion [NiH3](-).Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council (VR)Swedish Research Council [2019-05551]; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Advanced Functional Materials at at Linkoping University (Faculty Grant SFO-Mat-LiU) [200900971]; Carl Tryggers Stiftelse (CTS) [16:198, 17:206]</p

Unconventional Route to High-Pressure and -Temperature Synthesis of GeSn Solid Solutions

Ge and Sn are unreactive at ambient conditions. Their significant promise for optoelectronic applications is thus largely confined to thin film investigations. We sought to remove barriers to reactivity here by accessing a unique pressure, 10 GPa, where the two elements can adopt the same crystal structure (tetragonal, $I4_1$/$amd$) and exhibit compatible atomic radii. The route to GeSn solid solution, however, even under these directed conditions, is different. Reaction upon heating at 10 GPa occurs between unlike crystal structures (Ge, $Fd3m$ and Sn, $I$4/$mmm$), which also have highly incompatible atomic radii. They should not react, but they do. A reconstructive transformation of $I$4/$mmm$ into the $I$4$_1$/$amd$ solid solution then follows. The new tetragonal GeSn solid solution ($I$4$_1$/$amda$ = 5.280(1) Å, c = 2.915(1) Å, Z = 4 at 9.9 GPa and 298 K) also constitutes the structural and electronic bridge between 4-fold and newly prepared 8-fold coordinated alloy cubic symmetries. Furthermore, using this high-pressure route, bulk cubic diamond-structured GeSn alloys can now be obtained at ambient pressure. The findings here remove confining conventional criteria on routes to synthesis. This opens innovative avenues to advanced materials development

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Extreme water catalyzed transformations of SiO2, TiO2 and LiAlSiO4

The dramatic change in properties of water near its critical point (i.e. T = 374 °C and p = 22.1 MPa, note: 100 MPa = 0.1 GPa = 1 kbar ≈ 1000 atm) has been a subject of numerous studies and also lead to the development of various applications (e.g. in waste destruction, biomass processing, and the synthesis of advanced ceramic materials). However, comparatively little is known about the behavior of water at gigapascal pressures. The present study attempts to explore catalytical properties and reactivity of extreme water with respect to several oxide systems: SiO2, TiO2 and LiAlSiO4. “Extreme water” here is defined as existing at p,T conditions of 0.25–10 GPa and 200–1000 °C, thus considering both supercritical fluid and hot compressed ice. The study shows that extreme water can make high pressure mineral phases accessible at relatively mild T conditions. At the same time, high pressure aqueous environments appear efficient in stabilizing novel metastable structures and may be considered as a general route for synthesizing new materials. The hydrothermal treatment of SiO2 glass at 10 GPa and 300–550 °C yielded an unusual ultrahydrous form of stishovite with up to 3% of structural water. At the same time, the extreme water environment enhanced notably the kinetics of stishovite formation, making it accessible at unprecedentedly low temperatures. Thus, for the SiO2–H2O system water acts as both catalyst and reactant. For TiO2 a hydrothermal high pressure treatment proved to be of high importance for overcoming the kinetical hindrance of the rutile – TiO2-II transformation. 6 GPa and 650 °C were established as the mildest conditions for synthesizing pure TiO2-II phase in less than two hours. The crystallization of LiAlSiO4 glass in an extreme water environment yielded a number of different phases. In the low pressure region (0.25 – 2 GPa) mainly a zeolite (Li-ABW) and a dense anhydrous aluminosilicate (α-eucryptite) were obtained. At pressures above 5 GPa the formation of novel pyroxene-like structures with crystallographic amounts of structural water was observed. The overall conclusion of this study is that extreme water environments show a great potential for catalyzing phase transitions in oxide systems and for stabilizing novel structures via structural water incorporation.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p

Crystallization of LiAlSiO₄ Glass in Hydrothermal Environments at Gigapascal Pressures–Dense Hydrous Aluminosilicates

High-pressure hydrothermal environments can drastically reduce the kinetic constraints of phase transitions and afford high-pressure modifications of oxides at comparatively low temperatures. Under certain circumstances such environments allow access to kinetically favored phases, including hydrous ones with water incorporated as hydroxyl. We studied the crystallization of glass in the presence of a large excess of water in the pressure range of 0.25–10 GPa and at temperatures from 200 to 600 °C. The <i>p</i> and <i>T</i> quenched samples were analyzed by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and IR spectroscopy. At pressures of 0.25–2 GPa metastable zeolite Li-ABW and stable α-eucryptite are obtained at low and high temperatures, respectively, with crystal structures based on tetrahedrally coordinated Al and Si atoms. At 5 GPa a new, hydrous phase of LiAlSiO₄, LiAlSiO₃(OH)₂ = LiAlSiO₄·H₂O, is produced. Its crystal structure was characterized from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data (space group <i>P</i>2₁/<i>c</i>, <i>a</i> = 9.547(3) Å, <i>b</i> = 14.461(5) Å, <i>c</i> = 5.062(2) Å, β = 104.36(1)°). The monoclinic structure resembles that of α-spodumene (LiAlSi₂O₆) and constitutes alternating layers of chains of corner-condensed SiO₄ tetrahedra and chains of edge-sharing AlO₆ octahedra. OH groups are part of the octahedral Al coordination and extend into channels provided within the SiO₄ tetrahedron chain layers. At 10 GPa another hydrous phase of LiAlSiO₄ with presently unknown structure is produced. The formation of hydrous forms of LiAlSiO₄ shows the potential of hydrothermal environments at gigapascal pressures for creating truly new materials. In this particular case it indicates the possibility of generally accessing pyroxene-type aluminosilicates with crystallographic amounts of hydroxyl incorporated. This could also have implications to geosciences by representing a mechanism of water storage and transport in the depths of the Earth

The 3R3\mathit{R} polymorph of CaSi2\mathrm{CaSi_{2}}

The Zintl phase CaSi2 commonly occurs in the 6R structure where puckered hexagon layers of Si atoms are stacked in an AA′BB′CC′ fashion. In this study we show that sintering of CaSi2 in a hydrogen atmosphere (30 bar) at temperatures between 200 and 700 °C transforms 6R-CaSi2 quantitatively into 3R-CaSi2. In the 3R polymorph (space group R-3m (no. 166), a=3.8284(1), c=15.8966(4), Z=3) puckered hexagon layers are stacked in an ABC fashion. The volume per formula unit is about 3% larger compared to 6R-CaSi2. First principles density functional calculations reveal that 6R and 3R-CaSi2 are energetically degenerate at zero Kelvin. With increasing temperature 6R-CaSi2 stabilizes over 3R because of its higher entropy. This suggests that 3R-CaSi2 should revert to 6R at elevated temperatures, which however is not observed up to 800 °C. 3R-CaSi2 may be stabilized by small amounts of incorporated hydrogen and/or defects

Na3FeH7 and Na3CoH6: Hydrogen-Rich First-Row Transition Metal Hydrides from High Pressure Synthesis

The formation of ternary hydrogen-rich hydrides involving the first-row transition metals TM = Fe and Co in high oxidation states is demonstrated from in situ synchrotron diffraction studies of reaction mixtures NaH-TM-H-2 at p approximate to 10 GPa. Na3FeH7 and Na3CoH6 feature pentagonal bipyramidal FeH73- and octahedral CoH63- 18-electron complexes, respectively. At high pressure, high temperature (300 &amp;lt; T &amp;lt;= 470 degrees C) conditions, metal atoms are arranged as in the face-centered cubic Heusler structure, and ab initio molecular dynamics simulations suggest that the complexes undergo reorientational dynamics. Upon cooling, subtle changes in the diffraction patterns evidence reversible and rapid phase transitions associated with ordering of the complexes. During decompression, Na3FeH7 and Na3CoH6 transform to tetragonal and orthorhombic low pressure forms, respectively, which can be retained at ambient pressure. The discovery of Na3FeH7 and Na3CoH6 establishes a consecutive series of homoleptic hydrogen-rich complexes for first-row transition metals from Cr to Ni.Funding Agencies|Swedish Government Strategic Research Area Grant in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University [2009 00971]; Carl Tryggers Stiftelse (CTS) [16:198, 17:206]</p