Crystal Structure and Magnetic Properties of the Binary Triuranium Pentatelluride U3Te5

✍ Scribed by O. Tougait; M. Potel; H. Noël

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 444 KB
• Volume: 139
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4596
• DOI: 10.1006/jssc.1998.7857

✦ Synopsis

The crystal structure of the binary uranium telluride U 3 Te 5 has been determined for the first time from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. This compound crystallizes with a new structure type, in the orthorhombic space group Pnma (No. 62), with the unit cell parameters a ‫؍‬ 16.098(7) A s , b ‫؍‬ 4.210(2) A s , c ‫؍‬ 14.060(4) A s , Z ‫؍‬ 4. The structure has been refined to an agreement index of R(F) ‫؍‬ 0.049 and R (F) ‫؍‬ 0.050 for 50 variables and 1322 observations [I > 3 (I)]. The three nonequivalent uranium atoms are coordinated to eight tellurium atoms in bicapped trigonal prismatic arrangements. These prisms are stacked along the b axis by sharing their triangular faces and are linked by edge sharing to form a 6-fold capped triprism which is the repeating building unit of the structure. Magnetic measurements reveal ferromagnetic behavior below +120 K with a significant spin reorientation around 45 K. In the paramagnetic region U 3 Te 5 follows a modified Curie-Weiss law with an effective magnetic moment of 2.69 B /U atom and 0 ‫؍‬ 3.0316؋10 ؊3 emu/mol.