Premium
Crystal chemistry of hydrothermally grown ternary alkali rare earth fluorides
Author(s) -
McMillen Colin D.,
Comer Sara,
Fulle Kyle,
Sanjeewa Liurukara D.,
Kolis Joseph W.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section b
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.604
H-Index - 33
ISSN - 2052-5206
DOI - 10.1107/s2052520615017916
Subject(s) - alkali metal , ternary operation , ionic radius , stoichiometry , alkaline earth metal , crystal chemistry , hydrothermal circulation , ionic bonding , crystal structure , crystallography , single crystal , hydrothermal synthesis , crystal (programming language) , chemistry , materials science , rare earth , inorganic chemistry , mineralogy , ion , geology , organic chemistry , computer science , seismology , programming language
The structural variations of several alkali metal rare earth fluoride single crystals are summarized. Two different stoichiometric formulations are considered, namely those of A RE 2 F 7 and A RE 3 F 10 ( A = K, Rb, Cs; RE = Y, La–Lu), over a wide range of ionic radii of both the alkali and rare earth (RE) ions. Previously reported and several new single‐crystal structures are considered. The new single crystals are grown using hydrothermal methods and the structures are compared with literature reports of structures grown from both melts and hydrothermal fluids. The data reported here are combined with the literature data to gain a greater understanding of structural subtleties surrounding these systems. The work underscores the importance of the size of the cations to the observed structure type and also introduces synthetic technique as a contributor to the same. New insights based on single‐crystal structure analysis in the work introduce a new disordered structure type in the case of A RE 2 F 7 , and examine the trends and boundaries of the A RE 3 F 10 stoichiometry. Such fundamental structural information is useful in understanding the potential applications of these compounds as optical materials.