Decocq Victoria, Gui Xin, Neeson Alec, Xie Weiwei, Heitmann Thomas, Wang Fei
Department of Chemistry, Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri 65897, United States.
Department of Chemistry, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, United States.
Inorg Chem. 2020 Dec 7;59(23):17310-17319. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c02578. Epub 2020 Nov 16.
The only nonsuperconducting rhenium-silicon binary compound, ReSi, was heavily p-doped with Ga and Al into ReGaSi and ReAlSi in an attempt to evoke superconductivity. They were synthesized and their crystal structures were studied by both X-ray and neutron diffraction. Si and Ga/Al atoms are ordered into alternating layers, which was rationalized with the "coloring problem" study via first-principles calculations. ReGaSi cannot be further p-doped with more Ga, but ReAlSi can be doped with more Al to ReAlSi, in which Si and Al atoms are not ordered but randomly distributed on the same sites. The superconductivity measurements over these compounds demonstrate that the ordered ReAlSi and ReGaSi are not bulk superconductors. However, ReAlSi becomes bulk superconductor with = ∼3.5 K, which has been confirmed by magnetism, resistivity, and specific heat measurements.
