Existence of Erbium Hexaboride Nanowires

摘要

The existence and stability of erbium hexaboride (ErB_6) has been a controversial topic in literature due to cited failures in reproducing previous synthetic results. Here, we report our proof of the existence of ErB_6 by demonstrating the synthesis of a mixture of ErB_6 nanowires and erbium tetraboride (ErB_4) nanoplatelets via palladium nanoparticle-assisted chemical vapor deposition. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected-area electron diffraction showed that both the ErB_6 nanowires and ErB_4 nanoplatelets were single crystalline with expected cubic and tetragonal crystal structures, respectively. The observed lattice constants compared well with the theoretical structures calculated using density functional theory.