Growth of Sr6Rh5O15 Single Crystals from High-Temperature Solutions:  Structure Determination Using the Traditional 3-D and the 4-D Superspace Group Methods and Magnetic Measurements on Oriented Single Crystals

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 123; no. 36; pp. 8790 - 8796
• Main Authors: Stitzer, Katharine E, El Abed, Ahmed, Darriet, Jacques, zur Loye, Hans-Conrad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 12-09-2001
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/ja011071g

Single crystals of Sr6Rh5O15 were grown from a molten potassium carbonate flux. The structure was solved by both the traditional 3-D crystallographic approach and the 4-D superspace group approach using JANA2000. Both methods produced an equivalent structure determination, thereby confirming the 4-D superspace group approach as an effective structure solution method for 3-D commensurate composite structures. Sr6Rh5O15 corresponds to the n = 1, m = 1 member of the A3 n +3 m A‘nB3 m + n O9 m +6 n family of 2H hexagonal perovskite-related oxides. This compound is characterized by pseudo-one-dimensional polyhedral chains of four face-sharing RhO6 octahedra followed by one RhO6 trigonal prism. These chains in turn are separated by [Sr]∞ chains. Magnetic measurements were carried out on oriented single crystals, and a very large magnetic anisotropy in the magnetic susceptibility was observed.