Quasi-two-dimensional organic metals with differently oriented conducting layers

Abstract

New layered organic conductors based on selenium- and sulfur-containing donor molecules of bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene (BETS) and deuterated bis(ethylenedithio)-tetrathiafulvalene (ET) with tetrahedral anions of divalent metals of the general formula (BETS)₄HgBr₄(1,2-C₆H₄Cl₂), (ET-d₈)₄HgBr₄(C₆H₄Cl₂) and (ET-d₈)₄HgBr₄(C₆H₅X) (where X = Cl, Br) were synthesized using halobenzenes as solvents. The crystal structure of (BETS)₄HgBr₄(C₆H₄Cl₂) was studied at room temperature. A distinctive feature of the crystal structures of the compounds is the alternation of the conducting layers, which differ in direction of the radical cation stacks. The conductivity along the layers is of metallic character with the temperature decrease down to 4.3 K for (BETS)₄HgBr₄(C₆H₄Cl₂) and down to 40—105 K for ET-d₈-based compounds, while in the direction perpendicular to the conducting layers the conductivity is semiconducting. A comparative analysis of the temperature dependence of the resistivity for the compounds (ET)₄HgBr₄(Solvent) (Solvent is 1,2-C₆H₄Cl₂, C₆H₅X), which are based on ET and its deuterated analog, allows one to suggest that the metal—metal phase transitions observed in the 220—285 K range are of different origin: in the compounds containing 1,2-C₆H₄Cl₂ they are due to the ordering of solvent molecules, whereas in the compounds containing C₆H₅X the transitions are associated with rearrangements of the terminal ethylene groups.