The Parent Li(OH)FeSe Phase of Lithium Iron Hydroxide Selenide Superconductors

Daniel N Woodruff; Francesca Schild; Craig V Topping; Simon J Cassidy; Jack N Blandy; Stephen J Blundell; Amber L Thompson; Simon J Clarke

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01734

The Parent Li(OH)FeSe Phase of Lithium Iron Hydroxide Selenide Superconductors

Inorg Chem. 2016 Oct 3;55(19):9886-9891. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01734. Epub 2016 Sep 22.

Authors

Daniel N Woodruff¹, Francesca Schild¹, Craig V Topping², Simon J Cassidy¹, Jack N Blandy^{1

3}, Stephen J Blundell², Amber L Thompson¹, Simon J Clarke¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford , Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QR, UK.
² Department of Physics, University of Oxford , Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK.
³ Diamond Light Source Ltd., Harwell Science and Innovation Campus , Didcot, OX11 0DE, UK.

PMID: 27656906
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b01734

Abstract

Lithiation of hydrothermally synthesized Li_1-xFe_x(OH)Fe_1-ySe turns on high-temperature superconductivity when iron ions are displaced from the hydroxide layers by reductive lithiation to fill the vacancies in the iron selenide layers. Further lithiation results in reductive iron extrusion from the hydroxide layers, which turns off superconductivity again as the stoichiometric composition Li(OH)FeSe is approached. The results demonstrate the twin requirements of stoichiometric FeSe layers and reduction of Fe below the +2 oxidation state as found in several iron selenide superconductors.