Premium
Interplay of Atomic Interactions in the Intermetallic Semiconductor Be 5 Pt
Author(s) -
Amon Alfred,
Svanidze Eteri,
Ormeci Alim,
König Marcus,
Kasinathan Deepa,
Takegami Daisuke,
Prots Yurii,
Liao YenFa,
Tsuei KuDing,
Tjeng Liu Hao,
LeitheJasper Andreas,
Grin Yuri
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201909782
Subject(s) - intermetallic , semiconductor , band gap , tetrahedron , chemical bond , polar , coulomb , chemical physics , valence electron , vertex (graph theory) , valence (chemistry) , materials science , cluster (spacecraft) , valence band , condensed matter physics , quantum chemical , chemistry , electron , crystallography , physics , molecule , quantum mechanics , graph , mathematics , optoelectronics , alloy , discrete mathematics , composite material , computer science , programming language
Semiconducting substances form one of the most important families of functional materials. However, semiconductors containing only metals are very rare. The chemical mechanisms behind their ground‐state properties are only partially understood. Our investigations have rather unexpectedly revealed the semiconducting behaviour (band gap of 190 meV) for the intermetallic compound Be 5 Pt formed at a very low valence‐electron count. Quantum‐chemical analysis shows strong charge transfer from Be to Pt and reveals a three‐dimensional entity of vertex‐condensed empty Be 4 tetrahedrons with multi‐atomic cluster bonds interpenetrated by the framework of Pt‐filled vertex‐condensed Be 4 tetrahedrons with two‐atomic polar Be−Pt bonds. The combination of strong Coulomb interactions with relativistic effects results in a band gap.