Crystal Structure and Spectroscopic Properties of a New Ternary Tungstate Li3Ba2Ho3（WO4）8

A single crystal of Li3Ba2Ho3(WO4)8 was obtained from a flux of Li2WO4 under an air atmosphere. The structure of the pure crystal was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction method. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, space group C2/c with a = 5.240(4), b = 12.790(10), c = 19.247(15), β = 91.921(15)°, V = 1289.1(18)3, Z = 2, Mr = 2773.09, Dc = 7.144 g/cm3, μ = 47.732 mm-1, Rint = 0.0693, F(000) = 2340, the final R = 0.0472 and wR = 0.1221 for 1535 observed reflections (I > 2σ(I)). The Li3Ba2Ho3(WO4)8 has a high structure disorder with one 8f site shared by Li(1) and Ho ions with occupancy of 0.25 and 0.75, respectively. The fundamental structure is constituted by distorted square antiprisms Ho/Li(1)O8 with C1 symmetry, distorted Li(2)O6 octahedra and BaO10 polyhedra. The optical properties were investigated by IR and absorption spectroscopy, and the emission cross sections and gain cross sections of 5I7 → 5I8 of Ho3+ were calculated.     

Molten Salt Synthesis, Crystal Structure and Optical Properties of a Novel Quaternary Metal Selenide, K2AgIn3Se6

K2AgIn3Se6 was synthesized by a molten-salt (alkali-metal polyselenide flux) reaction at 500 ℃. The orange red granular crystal crystallizes in monoclinic space group C2/c with cell parameters, a=1.16411(7) nm, b=1.16348(8) nm, c=2.14179(12) nm, V=2.8740(9) nm^3, and Z=8. The crystal has a new two-dimensional structure containing ^2∞[AgIn3Se6]^2- anionic layers separated by K^- cations and the ^2∞[AgIn3Se6]^2- layer is constructed with corner-shared [AgSe4] and [InSe4] tetrahedra. The optical band gap of K2AgIn3Se6 was determined to be ca. 2.9 eV by UV/vis/NIR diffuse reflectance spectra.