Synthesis of clathrate cerium superhydride CeH9 at 80-100 GPa with atomic hydrogen sublattice

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 1 - 10
• Main Authors: Salke, Nilesh P., Davari Esfahani, M. Mahdi, Zhang, Youjun, Kruglov, Ivan A., Zhou, Jianshi, Wang, Yaguo, Greenberg, Eran, Prakapenka, Vitali B., Liu, Jin, Oganov, Artem R., Lin, Jung-Fu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.10.2019; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 639/638/298/924; 639/766/119/2795; 639/766/119/995; Cerium; Clathrates; Diamond anvil cells; H system; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; Laser beam heating; Motivation; multidisciplinary; Organic chemistry; Pressure; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Superconductivity; Synchrotron radiation; Synthesis; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12326-y

Hydrogen-rich superhydrides are believed to be very promising high- T c superconductors. Recent experiments discovered superhydrides at very high pressures, e.g. FeH 5 at 130 GPa and LaH 10 at 170 GPa. With the motivation of discovering new hydrogen-rich high- T c superconductors at lowest possible pressure, here we report the prediction and experimental synthesis of cerium superhydride CeH 9 at 80–100 GPa in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell coupled with synchrotron X-ray diffraction. Ab initio calculations were carried out to evaluate the detailed chemistry of the Ce-H system and to understand the structure, stability and superconductivity of CeH 9 . CeH 9 crystallizes in a P6 3 /mmc clathrate structure with a very dense 3-dimensional atomic hydrogen sublattice at 100 GPa. These findings shed a significant light on the search for superhydrides in close similarity with atomic hydrogen within a feasible pressure range. Discovery of superhydride CeH 9 provides a practical platform to further investigate and understand conventional superconductivity in hydrogen rich superhydrides. Hydrogen-rich superhydrides are promising high-temperature superconductors which have been observed only at pressures above 170 GPa. Here the authors show that CeH 9 can be synthesized at 80-100 GPa with laser heating, and is characterized by a clathrate structure with a dense 3-dimensional atomic hydrogen sublattice.