Crystal growth and structure determination of the new neodymium germanate, Na5Nd4Ge4O16(OH)
Abstract
Single crystals of Na5Nd4Ge4O16(OH) were grown out of a molten sodium hydroxide flux and the crystal structure was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Na5Nd4Ge4O16(OH) crystallizes in the tetragonal space group I-4 with a = 12.0778(4) Å, c = 5.7092(2) Å, V = 832.82(5) Å3, and Z = 2. The compound exhibits a complex three-dimensional crystal structure consisting of corner-, edge-, and face-shared NdO8, GeO4, NaO5 and NaO7 polyhedra. The Nd4O21 tetrameric building blocks resulted in a three-dimensional framework, creating propeller-like channels.
This paper has been withdrawn.