Hydrogen-Assisted Mg Intercalation into 2H-TaS.

Intercalation reactions are highly dependent on the electronic and structural relationships between host and guest materials. It is difficult for divalent ions, such as Mg, to undergo intercalation reactions compared with monovalent cations. However, further development of synthetic techniques for controlling divalent ions is strongly demanded to advance applied chemistry and fundamental physics.

Electric Transport Properties of NaAlB with Covalent Frameworks.

A synthetic protocol was developed for obtaining a single phase of polycrystalline NaAlB with strongly connected intergrain boundaries. NaAlB has a unique crystal structure with a tunnel-like covalent framework of B that traps monovalent Na and trivalent Al ions. Owing to the atmospheric instability and volatility of Na, the synthesis of polycrystalline NaAlB and its physical properties have not been reported yet.

A Novel Technique for Controlling Anisotropic Ion Diffusion: Bulk Single-Crystalline Metallic Silicon Clathrate.

Na-free Si clathrates consisting only of Si cages are an allotrope of diamond-structured Si. This material is promising for various device applications, such as next-generation photovoltaics. The probable technique for synthesizing Na-free Si clathrates is to extract Na from the Si cages of Na Si .

Effect of Dy substitution in the giant magnetocaloric properties of HoB.

Recently, a massive magnetocaloric effect near the liquefaction temperature of hydrogen has been reported in the ferromagnetic material HoB. Here we investigate the effects of Dy substitution in the magnetocaloric properties of Ho Dy B alloys ( = 0, 0.3, 0.