Crystal structure of strontium dicobalt iron(III) tris(orthophosphate): SrCo2Fe(PO4)3

• Main Authors: Adam Bouraima, Thomas Makani, Abderrazzak Assani, Mohamed Saadi, Lahcen El Ammari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Union of Crystallography 2016-08-01
• Series: Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications
• Subjects: crystal structure; SrCo2Fe(PO4)3; transition metal phosphate; solid-state reaction synthesis; alluaudite-like structure
• Online Access: http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S2056989016011373

The title compound, SrCo2Fe(PO4)3, has been synthesized by a solid-state reaction. It crystallizes with the α-CrPO4 type structure. In this structure, all atoms are on special positions of the Imma space group, except for two O atoms which are located on general positions. The three-dimensional network in the crystal structure is made up of two types of layers stacked normal to (100). The first layer is built from two edge-sharing CoO6 octahedra, leading to the formation of Co2O10 dimers that are connected to two PO4 tetrahedra by a common edge and corners. The second layer results from apex-sharing FeO6 octahedra and PO4 tetrahedra, which form linear chains alternating with a zigzag chain of SrII cations. These layers are linked together by common vertices of PO4 tetrahedra and FeO6 octahedra to form an open three-dimensional framework that delimits two types of channels parallel to [100] and [010] where the SrII cations are located. Each SrII cation is surrounded by eight O atoms.