PbCO
PbCO is an unstable, semiconducting compound containing lead, carbon, and oxygen that is primarily utilized in fundamental materials research.
About PbCO
PbCO is a semiconducting compound composed of lead, carbon, and oxygen. As a material that resides above the thermodynamic hull, it is characterized by its inherent instability, making it a subject of interest for researchers studying metastable phases and synthesis pathways.
Despite its challenging stability profile, the compound has been identified across multiple structural databases. Its electronic nature as a semiconductor suggests potential for specialized research in thin-film or solid-state chemistry where unconventional lead-based phases are explored.
Key Properties
Cross-validated computational properties for PbCO, aggregated across 3 databases.
Band GapEnergy needed to move an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. Lower or zero values tend to behave more metallic; larger gaps are more insulating or semiconducting.
Energy Above HullThermodynamic distance from the most stable set of competing phases. 0 eV/atom is on the convex hull; small positive values may still be experimentally accessible.
StabilityA plain-language summary of the best reported energy-above-hull result. It reflects whether the lowest-energy structure is on, near, or far from the stability hull.
StructuresCount of reported calculated crystal structures for this formula, including alternate polymorphs, source databases, and observed space groups.
Reported Structures
Lowest-energy structures reported for PbCO, ranked by energy above hull.
| Space GroupSymmetry classification of the crystal arrangement. The number is the international space-group index. | Crystal SystemBroad lattice family, such as cubic, tetragonal, monoclinic, or triclinic, derived from unit-cell symmetry. | Band Gap (eV)Electronic gap calculated for this specific reported structure, measured in electronvolts. | E above hull (eV/atom)Thermodynamic distance from the convex hull for this structure, normalized per atom. Lower is generally more stable. | E/atom (eV)Computed total energy normalized per atom. Use energy above hull, not this value alone, when comparing stability. | Density (g/cm³)Mass per relaxed crystal volume, reported in grams per cubic centimeter. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I41/amd (No. 141) | tetragonal | 2.95 | 0.3272 | -7.687 | 8.11 |
| P-6m2 (No. 187) | — | — | — | — | — |
| P1 (No. 1) | Triclinic | — | — | — | 8.94 |
| P1 (No. 1) | Triclinic | — | — | — | 6.69 |
| P1 (No. 1) | Triclinic | — | — | — | 10.28 |
Applications
Where PbCO is used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about PbCO, answered from cross-validated data.
What is PbCO?
PbCO is an unstable, semiconducting compound containing lead, carbon, and oxygen that is primarily utilized in fundamental materials research.
What is PbCO used for?
What is the band gap of PbCO?
Is PbCO a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Is PbCO thermodynamically stable?
What is the crystal structure of PbCO?
What is the density of PbCO?
How many polymorphs of PbCO are known?
What elements does PbCO contain?
Where does the data for PbCO come from?
How It Compares
As a unique lead-carbon-oxygen phase, PbCO represents an intriguing outlier in materials science. Without direct structural siblings in its immediate class, it serves as a distinct case study for understanding the limits of stability in lead-based compounds and the complexities of predicting non-equilibrium material behavior.
Data sources & attribution
- materials_project — Data from the Materials Project. Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013).
- jarvis — Data from JARVIS (NIST). Cite: Choudhary et al., npj Comp. Mater. 6, 173 (2020).
- mpaloe — Data from mpaloe.
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