Inorganic Chemistry, Vol.46, No.6, 2187-2192, 2007
Rare-earth metal-rich antimonides: Syntheses, structures, and properties of Tm3Sb and Lu7Sb3
The two most metal-rich lanthanide antimony phases known were obtained from high-temperature solid state syntheses, that for Tm3Sb being of greater difficulty because of its apparent incongruent melting. The Tm3Sb phase crystallizes in the tetragonal space group P4(2)/n (No. 86) with a Ti3P-type (Pearson: tP32) structure, a = 12.2294(5) angstrom, c = 5.9852(5) angstrom, and Z = 8. The phase Lu7Sb3 exhibits a Sc7As3-type tetragonal structure, I4/mcm (No. 140) (tI56), with a = 15.5974(7) angstrom, c = 8.8130(7) angstrom, and Z = 8. Both structures are described in terms of compact arrays of condensed chains of metal polyhedra (tetrahedral, tetrahedral star, trigonal prismatic, cubic) together with six- to nine-coordinate Sb in metal polyhedra. Magnetic susceptibility data on the paramagnetic Tm3Sb are also reported.