2008-01-25
The two lightest metallic elements, lithium and beryllium, do not interact with each other to form an alloy in ambient conditions. But the structure and also the reactivity of many compounds can be altered fundamentally by subjecting them to high pressure. A new computational study suggests that in the case of lithium and beryllium, four alloys — LiBe, LiBe2, LiBe4 and Li3Be — should be stable at readily accessible pressures. Intriguingly, two-dimensional layers of almost ideal free-electron-like states appear within the three-dimensional crystal environment of one of the alloys, which may also have interesting superconducting properties.
Asst. Prof. Richard Hennig co-authored this paper for Nature with 2007 Cornell Ph.D. recipient Ji Feng, renowned theoretical physicist Neil Ashcroft and Nobel Prize-winning chemist Roald Hoffman.
Click here to read the entire paper.
Ashcroft and Hoffman were also interviewed in this issue about the research. Read the interview here.