Pyrite FeO2: material "in between'" oxides and peroxides [CL]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1705.08085


Recent discovery [Nature 534, 241 (2016)] of FeO$_2$, which can be an important ingredient of the Earth’s lower mantle and which in particular may serve as an extra source of oxygen and water at the Earth’s surface and atmosphere, opens new perspectives for geophysics and geochemistry, but this is also an extremely interesting material from physical point of view. We found that in contrast to naive expectations Fe is nearly 3+ in this material, which strongly affects its magnetic properties and makes it qualitatively different from well known sulfide analogue – FeS$_2$. Doping, which is most likely to occur in the Earth’s mantle, makes FeO$_2$ much more magnetic. In addition we show that unique electronic structure places FeO$_2$ “in between” the usual dioxides and peroxides making this system interesting both for physics and solid state chemistry.

Read this paper on arXiv…

S. Streltsov, A. Shorikov, S. Skornyakov, et. al.
Wed, 24 May 17
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