Chemical bonding in metallic rutile-type oxides to2 (T = Ru, Rh, Pd, Pt)

Abstract

Synthesis routes to rutile-type oxides with 4d and 5d transition elements are summarized. Trends in electronic structure have been established through an analysis in the framework of density functional theory presenting the band structure, the density of states and the properties of chemical bonding. The metal-oxygen bond is found to play the major role in bonding of the system in the valence band. Throughout the series 4d → 5d (RuO2, RhO 2, PdO2 and PtO2) the crystal field analysis of the band structure shows a lowering of eg towards t2g manifolds and a broadening of the overall density of states. In the vicinity of the Fermi level the role of the antibonding metal-oxygen character is investigated in the context of instability towards possible magnetic polarization, especially for RuO2. © 2007 Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung,.