title: EuI2, a low-temperature europium(II) iodide phase.
abstract: Light-yellow europium(II) diiodide, prepared by the low-temperature reaction of europium and ammonium iodide in liquid ammonia at 200 K and characterized by high-resolution X-ray powder diffraction, represents a new phase for EuI2 that adopts an orthorhombic Pnma structure with all three atoms lying on 4c positions (.m.). It is isotypic with SrI2(IV). Temperature-dependent X-ray measurements performed to investigate the thermal stability of the new phase show that it decomposes irreversibly to amorphous material around 673 K. Total-energy density-functional calculations using the generalized gradient approximation suggest this to be the ground-state structure of EuI2.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Inorganic Chemistry, RWTH Aachen University, Landoltweg 1, D-52056 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krings
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wessel
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dronskowski