Verbeekite

Verbeekite is a rare mineral consisting of palladium diselenide PdSe₂. This transition metal dichalcogenide has an unusual monoclinic structure, with pairs of selenium atoms existing as dimers forming layers between palladium atom sheets. Unit cell dimensions are: a = 6.710, b = 4.154, c = 8.914 Å, β = 92.42 °, V = 248.24 Å³. Palladium diselenide has five polymorphs. Verbeekite can be synthesised at 11.5 GPa pressure and 1300 °C.^[1]

Monolayer PdSe₂ has been predicted as a semiconductor and synthesized as an electronic material.^[2][3]

The mineral was discovered in 2002 from the Musonoi Cu-Co-Mn-U mine (Kolwezi), in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Verbeekite was named after geologist Théodore Verbeek who studied minerals at that mine between 1955 and 1967.^[4]

References

1. Selb, Elisabeth; Tribus, Martina; Heymann, Gunter (26 April 2017). "Verbeekite, the long-unknown crystal structure of monoclinic PdSe₂". Inorganic Chemistry. 56 (10): 5885–5891. doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b00544. PMID 28445041.
2. Sun, Jifeng (2015). "Electronic, transport and optical properties of bulk and monolayer PdSe₂". Applied Physics Letters. 107 (15): 153902. Bibcode:2015ApPhL.107o3902S. doi:10.1063/1.4933302. OSTI 1265984.
3. Oyedele, Akinola (2017). "PdSe₂: Pentagonal two-dimensional layers with high air stability for electronics". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 139 (40): 14090–14097. doi:10.1021/jacs.7b04865. OSTI 1394440. PMID 28873294.
4. Mindat data