Interplay of Coordination Environment and Magnetic Behavior of Layered Co(II) Hydroxichlorides: A DFT+U Study

In this work we present a systematic computational study of the structural and magnetic properties of a layered family of Co(II) hydroxichlorides, obeying to the general formula Co(OH)_{2- x}Cl _x(H₂O) _y. This solid contains both octahedral and tetrahedral cobalt ions, displaying a complex magnetic order arising from the particular coupling between the two kinds of metallic centers. Here, supercells representing concentrations of 12, 20, and 40% of tetrahedral sites were modeled consistently with the compositions reported experimentally. Our simulations show that the two types of cobalt ions tend to couple antiferromagnetically, giving rise to a net magnetic moment slightly out of the plane of the layers. The band gap reaches its minimum value of 1.4 eV for the most diluted fraction of tetrahedral Co(II) sites, going up to 2.2 eV when the content is 40%. Moreover, our results suggest that the presence of interlayer water stabilizes the material and at the same time strongly modifies the electronic environment of tetrahedral Co(II), leading to a further drop of the band gap. To our knowledge, this is the first theoretical investigation of this material.