Verbeekite is a rare mineral consisting of palladium diselenide PdSe2. This transition metal dichalcogenide has an unusual monoclinic structure, with pairs of selenium atoms existing as dimers forming layers between palladium atom sheets. Unit cell dimensions are: a = 6.710, b = 4.154, c = 8.914 Å, β = 92.42 °, V = 248.24 Å3. Palladium diselenide has five polymorphs. Verbeekite can be synthesised at 11.5 GPa pressure and 1300 °C.[1]

Monolayer PdSe2 has been predicted as a semiconductor and synthesized as an electronic material.[2][3]

The mineral was discovered in 2002 from the Musonoi Cu-Co-Mn-U mine (Kolwezi), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Verbeekite was named after geologist Théodore Verbeek who studied minerals at that mine between 1955 and 1967.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Selb, Elisabeth; Tribus, Martina; Heymann, Gunter (26 April 2017). "Verbeekite, the long-unknown crystal structure of monoclinic PdSe2". Inorganic Chemistry. 56 (10): 5885–5891. doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b00544. PMID 28445041.
  2. ^ Sun, Jifeng (2015). "Electronic, transport and optical properties of bulk and monolayer PdSe2". Applied Physics Letters. 107 (15): 153902. Bibcode:2015ApPhL.107o3902S. doi:10.1063/1.4933302. OSTI 1265984.
  3. ^ Oyedele, Akinola (2017). "PdSe2: Pentagonal two-dimensional layers with high air stability for electronics". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 139 (40): 14090–14097. doi:10.1021/jacs.7b04865. OSTI 1394440. PMID 28873294.
  4. ^ Mindat data