Crystal structure of the ternary silicide Gd2Re3Si5

• Main Authors: Vitaliia Fedyna, Roksolana Kozak, Roman Gladyshevskii
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Union of Crystallography 2014-12-01
• Series: Acta Crystallographica Section E
• Subjects: crystal structure; gadolinium; rhenium; silicon; intermetallic compound; ternary silicide
• Online Access: http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S1600536814024234

A single crystal of the title compound, the ternary silicide digadolinium trirhenium pentasilicide, Gd2Re3Si5, was isolated from an alloy of nominal composition Gd20Re30Si50 synthesized by arc melting and investigated by X-ray single-crystal diffraction. Its crystal structure belongs to the U2Mn3Si5 structure type. All atoms in the asymmetric lie on special positions. The Gd site has site symmetry m..; the two Mn atoms have site symmetries m.. and 2.22; the three Si atoms have site symmetries m.., ..2 and 4.. . The coordination polyhedra of the Gd atoms have 21 vertices, while those of the Re atoms are cubooctahedra and 13-vertex polyhedra. The Si atoms are arranged as tricapped trigonal prisms, bicapped square antiprisms, or 11-vertex polyhedra. The crystal structure of the title compound is also related to the structure types CaBe2Ge2 and W5Si3. It can be represented as a stacking of Gd-centred polyhedra of composition [GdSi9]. The Re atoms form infinite chains with an Re—Re distance of 2.78163 (5) Å and isolated squares with an Re—Re distance of 2.9683 (6) Å.