@misc{FroeschkeBesthaFuckeetal., author = {Froeschke, Samuel and Bestha, Kranthi Kumar and Fucke, Rico and Schiemenz, Sandra and Popov, Alexey and Naumann, Marco and Knupfer, Martin and Giebeler, Lars and Wolf, Daniel and Kizhake Malayil, Ranjith Kumar and Sivan, Saramgi Chencheriparambil and Grafe, Hans-Joachim and Gräßler, Nico and Corredor, Laura T. and Wolter, Anja U. B. and B{\"u}chner, Bernd and Schmidt, Peer and Hampel, Silke}, title = {Structural and Magnetic Transitions Caused by Dimer Formation in the CrCl3-MoCl3 Solid Solution}, series = {Chemistry of Materials}, volume = {36}, journal = {Chemistry of Materials}, number = {9}, issn = {0897-4756}, doi = {10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c03109}, pages = {4240 -- 4253}, abstract = {In this work, we apply the concept of solid solutions to the two 2D transition metal trihalides CrCl3 and MoCl3. While CrCl3 belongs to the magnetically active CrX3 family, the magnetism in MoCl3 is intrinsically suppressed by the formation of aligned Mo-Mo dimers, which also distort the regular honeycomb lattice that is typical for the 2D transition metal trihalides. We report suitable synthesis conditions for the gapless solid solution and crystal growth by chemical vapor transport. The CrCl3-MoCl3 solid solution was initially synthesized at 650 °C for 100 h under addition of MoCl5 as mineralizer, and bulk crystals were subsequently grown by vapor transport in a temperature gradient from 600 °C → 550 °C for 60 h. The obtained solid solution exhibits multiple composition-dependent phase transitions at room temperature, as confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction measurements. The possible presence of Mo-Mo dimers in the solid solution was further investigated by infrared, Raman, electron energy loss, and nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopies. The combined results indicate that the Mo-Mo dimers are present over a wide range of compositions. Their orientation changes from parallel alignment for compositions from 70\% ≤ c(Mo3+) ≤ 100\% to random orientation for samples with c(Mo3+) < 70\% content, which significantly affects the course of lattice parameters. Finally, the magnetic properties of the powder samples show a correlation between the Mo3+ content and the transition temperature into the low-temperature phase.}, language = {en} }