Flux Crystal Growth, Crystal Structure, and Magnetic Properties of a Ternary Chromium Disulfide Ba9Cr4S19 with Unusual Cr4S15 Tetramer Units

A new ternary chromium disulfide, Ba₉Cr₄S₁₉, has been grown out of BaCl₂ molten salt. Single-crystal structure analysis revealed that it crystallizes in the centrosymmetric space group C 2/c with lattice parameters: a = 12.795(3) Å, b = 11.3269(2) Å, c = 23.2057(6) Å, β = 104.041(3)°, and Z = 4. Ba₉Cr₄S₁₉ comprises four face-sharing Cr-centered octahedra with disulfide ions occupying sites on each terminal face. The resulting Cr₄S₁₅ tetramer units are isolated by nonmagnetic Ba-centered polyhedra in the ab plane and barium disulfide (=Ba₄(S₂)₂) layers along the c-axis. Following the structure analysis, the title compound should be expressed as [Ba²⁺]₉[Cr³⁺]₄[(S₂)^2-]₄[S^2-]₁₁, which is also consistent with Cr2p X-ray photoemission spectra showing trivalent states of the Cr atoms. The unique Cr-based zero-dimensional structure with the formation of these disulfide ions can be achieved for the first time in ternary chromium sulfides, which adopt 1-3 dimensional frameworks of Cr-centered polyhedra.

New sodium-rich mixed Mn/In chalcogenido metallates Na 12 MnIn 2 Q 10 (Q = S, Se)

The sodium-rich sulfido and selenido metallates Na12MnIn2 Q 10 (Q = S/Se) were synthesized in pure phase from melts composed of stoichiometric quantities of the manganese monochalcogenides MnQ, elemental indium and the chalcogens together with either Na2S (Q = S) or elemental sodium (Q = Se) as starting material. The samples were heated up to maximum temperatures of 1000/900 °C under an argon atmosphere; crystallization was achieved by slow cooling rates of 10 K h−1. The two isotypic compounds (monoclinic, space group P21/m, a = 678.26(2)/698.85(10), b = 2202.77(7)/2298.7(3), c = 766.39(3)/800.59(13) pm, β = 90.232(2)/90.147(5)°, Z = 2, R1 = 0.0516/0.0575) crystallize in a new structure type. According to the division of the formula as Na12[InQ 4][MnInQ 6] the salts contain ortho indate anions [InIII Q 4]5− besides hetero-bimetallic dimers [MnIIInIII Q 6]7−, which consist of two edge-sharing [MQ 4] tetrahedra. The seven crystallographically different sodium cations exhibit an either tetrahedral or octahedral coordination by the chalcogen atoms. Thus, the overall structure of the salt is best described by a hexagonal close packing of the sulfide/selenide anions, in which the octahedral voids of every second interlayer section are fully occupied by the (overall 5/f.u.) Na + positions with CN = 6. In the other half of the interlayer sheets, all tetrahedral voids (overall 10/f.u.) are occupied by the seven CN = 4 Na + cations, one In3+ of the ortho anion and the two Mn2+/In3+ cations (which statistically occupy one crystallographic site). This structure relation is also verified by a Bärnighausen group-subgroup tree connecting the h.c.p. (Mg type) aristotype (with its tetrahedral and octahedral voids) by an overall index of 60 with the structure of the two title compounds.