Single crystals of 2H and 3R niobium diselenide were grown by a chemical transport reaction. The current determinations by single crystals X-ray diffraction reveal a non-stoichiometric composition. The structures are built from Se—Nb—Se slabs with Nb in trigonal prismatic coordination whereas the extra or additional Nb atoms are located in the octahedral holes between the slabs giving rise to the formula 2H and 3R-Nb1+xSe2 with 0.07 < x < 0.118. In particular, vacancy and Nb-Nb interactions may play an important role on the non-stoichiometry and the stacking mode in NbSe2. By increasing the number of additional Nb atoms in the pure 2H-NbSe2, a transition 2H to 3R polytype should occur in order to minimize the Nblayer—Nbextra—Nblayer repulsions between these adjacent slabs. The theoretical study shows that both 2H and 3R-Nb1+xSe2 are thermodynamically stable in the range 0 < x < 0.1.

The Crystal structure of both α-Ti2O3 and its new substructure with a halved c-axis has been investigated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The α-Ti2O3 substructure described in the R-3m space group, reveals an unusual 12-fold high coordination of Ti atoms forming edge and face-sharing distorted hexagonal prisms TiO12 stacking along the c-axis. The Hubbard-corrections predict a close bandgap for both α-Ti2O3 and its substructure; whereas a comparative study of their relative stability indicates that the substructure is thermodynamically less stable.

Experimental and theoretical study of a new pnictidehalide compound Hg 12 Sb 6 (Br 5.186 I 6.814

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