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Synthesis and Structure of the Layered Thorium Telluride CsTh2Te6

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posted on 1996-06-19, 00:00 authored by Jason A. Cody, James A. Ibers
The compound CsTh2Te6 has been synthesized at 800 °C by the reaction of Th with a Cs2Te3/Te melt as a reactive flux. The compound crystallizes in the space group -Cmcm of the orthorhombic system with two formula units in a cell of dimensions a = 4.367(2) Å, b = 25.119(10) Å, c = 6.140(3) Å, and V = 673.5(5) Å3 at T = 113 K. The structure of CsTh2Te6 has been determined from single-crystal X-ray data. The structure comprises infinite, two-dimensional double layers of ThTe8-bicapped trigonal prisms. The structural motif of the trigonal prisms resembles that found in UTe2. Cs+ cations, disordered equally over two crystallographically equivalent sites, separate the layers and are coordinated by eight Te atoms at the corners of a rectangular parallelepiped. Short Te−Te distances of 3.052(3) and 3.088(3) Å form linear, infinite, one-dimensional chains within the layers. Simple formalisms describe neither the Te−Te bonding in the chain nor the oxidation state of Th. The compound shows weak semiconducting behavior along the Th/Te layers perpendicular to the Te−Te chain.

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