The complete series of sodium rare-earth metal(III) chloride oxotellurates(IV) Na2RE3Cl3[TeO3]4 (RE = Y, La-Nd, Sm-Lu)

The complete series of sodium rare-earth metal(III) chloride oxotellurates(IV) with the composition Na2RE3Cl3[TeO3](4) (RE = Y, La-Nd, Sm-Lu) has been synthesized via solid-state reactions. For these conversions mixtures of the respective rare-earth metal(III) oxides, tellurium dioxide and sodium chloride as flux and reactant were prepared, intimately ground and heated for 5 days at 1225 K. The almost colorless single crystals were characterized via single-crystal X-ray diffractometry. In the monoclinic crystal structure of these compounds two crystallographically different rare-earth metal(III), but only one sodium cation sites occur. [REO8](13-) polyhedra around both RE(3+ )positions as well as sodium-centered polyhedra [NaO4Cl4](8-) form layers via different connectivity modes. These layers spread out parallel to the (001) plane and arrange alternatingly resulting in the three-dimensional network of the Na2RE3Cl3[TeO3](4) structure, where the Te4+ lone-pair cations at two different sites work as linkers by forming isolated psi(1)-tetrahedra [TeO3](2-). Some of these compounds were represented before in different settings of space group C2/c. Now the complete series of the Na2RE3Cl3[TeO3](4) representatives with RE = Y, La-Nd, Sm-Lu is described consistently for a better comparison and understanding. Additionally, a single crystal of Na2Pr3Cl3[TeO3](4) was measured via energy dispersive X-ray analysis to verify the included elements, powder samples of Na2Nd3Cl3[TeO3](4) were characterized by X-ray diffractometer data for a phase-purity check and a single-crystal Raman spectrum of Na2Yb3Cl3[TeO3](4) served for proving the signature of discrete [TeO3](2-) anions.