Subvalent oxido- and nitridometalates: ways towards low-dimensional metals

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Constantin Hoch
• Subject Area: Solid State and Surface Chemistry, Material Synthesis
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444769550

The main target of this project is the synthesis of low-dimensional metallic systems. They are accessible via the synthesis of subvalent compounds with low-dimensional metallic structural regions.Subvalent oxides and nitrides contain alternating arrays of structural regions with either prevalent ionic or metallic bonding. Normally, anionic cluster units are embedded in a metallic matrix, hence these compounds show overall metallic behaviour. If the ionic structural regions are enlarged by targetted synthetic manipulations, the metallic regions show reduced dimensionality. By this, materials become feasible with highly anisotropic metallic porperties: two- or one-dimensional metals or even quantum dots with metallic clusters containing only few metal atoms. Today, no such materials have been described, and they can be estimated to show unusual optical, electric and magnetic properties. We have gained experience and expertise on synthesis of subvalent compounds over many years, and from previous work we can extrapolate concepts how to manipulate the crystal structures of such compounds in the abovementioned sense.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants