Polymorphism in gadolinium trichloride

Structural reconstruction and anisotropic conductance in 4f-ferromagnetic monolayer

“…The R-phase (R-3) possesses the vdW layered structure with ABC-type stacking, which is usual for many other MX3 compounds like GdI3 [23,24]. The unusual Cmcm-phase with PuBr3-type vdW stacking in the AB sequence, was reported in the 1960s [37]. (in unit of meV/f.u.…”

“…Four possible structures of GdCl3 bulk were reported according to the Materials Project Database [36] and early experiment [37], as shown in Fig. 1.…”

“…The energy of Cmcm bulk is taken as the reference, with unified ferromagnetic (FM) order for all candidates. The experimental (Exp) one is shown for comparison [37].…”

Non-cytotoxic carbon nanocapsules synthesized via one-pot filling and end-closing of multi-walled carbon nanotubes

“…Additional electron microscopy images of individual MWCNTs, filled and with both ends closed, are included in Figures S5-S7. Bulk GdCl3 exhibits polymorphism and can crystallize in both the hexagonal UCl3 type structure or in the orthorhombic PuBr3 type structure, [42] the latter being a van der Waals solid formed upon stacking sandwich layers of GdCl 3 (Figure S8). As a consequence, the formation of GdCl3 nanocapsules resulted in the formation of single-layered inorganic nanotubes inside the cavities of MWCNTs.…”

“…To provide direct evidence of the efficacy and versatility of the proposed one-pot synthesis approach, a variety of multi-walled carbon nanocapsules have been prepared by filling MWCNTs with NaI, KI, BaI2, GdCl3 and SmCl3 (MX@MWCNTs, where X = metal and X = halide). These are technologically relevant materials since for instance (i) potassium iodide allows tuning the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, [10,40] _ENREF_10(ii) Gd-based compounds are widely used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), [41] allowing the development of multifunctional scaffolds [26] and also to magnetically enhance stem cell retention for cellular cardiomyoplasty [25] (iii) iodide and samarium salts are of interest for their use in nuclear medicine (using radioactive isotopes), [36,38]_ENREF_35 (iv) the presence of heavy elements is of interest for the development of x-ray contrast agents (Ba and I for instance) [39] and (iv) bulk GdCl3 can crystallize in the layered PuBr3 structure (van der Waals solid), [42] so it could lead to the isolation of single-layers once confined. [5,7,19] New properties and applications arise from the creation of van der Waals heterostructures of layered compounds.…”