We have successfully synthesized niobium monophosphide and tantalum monophosphide crystals by a chemical vapor transport technique. We report resistivity vs. temperature of both materials in the temperature range from 2 K to 300 K. We have also performed electronic structure calculations and present the band structure and density of states of these two compounds. The calculations show that both...

Ta-based compounds show Pt-like behavior: Binary tantalum compounds as counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) demonstrate Pt-like electrocatalytic activity and competitive photovoltaic performance, matching the performance of DSCs with Pt CEs. The first-principle density functional theory (DFT) calculations provide a strategy for understanding the relationship between the...

The magnesium-rich intermetallic compounds RETMg2 (RE = La, Pr, Nd; T = Ni, Pd, Pt) were obtained by melting of the elements in sealed tantalum ampoules and subsequent annealing. Their structures have been characterized on the basis of powder X-ray diffraction. The RETMg2 phases crystallize with the orthorhombic MgCuAl2-type structure, space group Cmcm. The crystal chemical peculiarities are br...

Recently, tantalum has been increasingly studied as a diffusion barrier material for copper due to its high melting point (2669 °C) and immiscibility with Cu. Most Ta thin films are deposited by PVD, but it would be advantageous to develop halide-free precursors to produce pure Ta films by CVD. To achieve this goal, we have studied the chemistry of new organotantalum compounds that consist only...