MOSCOW, October 16. New compounds with a number of promising properties were synthesized and studied for the first time in the world by scientists from Tyumen State University with the participation of foreign colleagues. According to them, the pure quaternary tellurides they obtained will make it possible to improve a wide range of systems in modern microelectronics and other fields. The results were published in the journal CrystEngComm.
The search for new materials is the key to the development of modern microelectronics, optics, laser technology, and photovoltaics, scientists explained. According to the researchers, the absence of impurities in the substances used is especially important for these areas of technology.
Tellurides compounds, due to their thermoelectric characteristics, are one of the most promising materials for semiconductor and laser technology. According to experts, they are very difficult to obtain in pure powder form.
Scientists at Tyumen State University (TSU) have selected optimal conditions for the synthesis of quaternary tellurides consisting of tellurium, copper atoms and two rare earth elements. In the course of the work, the authors were the first in the world to obtain two compounds of the class of europium tellurides, and studied their crystal structure and magnetic properties.
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“We have optimized the conditions for obtaining quaternary tellurides, thereby achieving the required purity of the product, and also reduced the time of their synthesis, which is important when planning industrial processes,” said Anna Ruseikina, leading researcher at the Institute of Chemistry of Tyumen State University.
In the future, by varying the combinations of cations in quaternary tellurides, it is possible to obtain a wide range of structures with diverse electrical and optical characteristics, the researchers emphasized. At the same time, according to them, the compounds, depending on the composition, exhibit ferri- and ferromagnetic properties.
«To obtain quaternary chalcogenides, which include tellurides, a number of synthetic methods have been developed, but they did not allow the production of pure quaternary tellurides. We hope that our work will become the basis for industrial technology for obtaining compounds this type with a wide range of properties,” noted Ruseikina.
The study was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of authors from Russia and Germany. In the future, the research team plans to conduct a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of the entire series of europium quaternary tellurides, opening a new unexplored class of semiconductor and thermoelectric materials.
Synthesis, study of the properties and possibilities of using new functional materials is one of the main areas of work of the Institute of Chemistry of Tyumen State University.