Redetermination of the crystal structure of β-zinc molybdate from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data

Abstract

The crystal structure of the β-polymorph of ZnMoO4 was re-determined on the basis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. In comparison with previous powder X-ray diffraction studies [Katikaneani & Arunachalam (2005). Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. pp. 3080–3087; Cavalcante et al. (2013). Polyhedron, 54, 13–25], all atoms were refined with anisotropic displacement parameters, leading to a higher precision with respect to bond lengths and angles. β-ZnMoO4 adopts the wolframite structure type and is composed of distorted ZnO6 and MoO6 octahedra, both with point group symmetry 2. The distortion of the octahedra is reflected by variation of bond lengths and angles from 2.002 (3)–2.274 (4) Å, 80.63 (11)–108.8 (2)° for equatorial and 158.4 (2)– 162.81 (14)° for axial angles (ZnO6), and of 1.769 (3)–2.171 (3) Å, 73.39 (16)–104.7 (2), 150.8 (2)–164.89 (15)° (MoO6), respectively. In the crystal structure, the same type of MO6 octahedra share edges to built up zigzag chains extending parallel to [001]. The two types of chains are condensed by common vertices into a framework structure. The crystal structure can alternatively be described as derived from a distorted hexagonally closed packed arrangement of the O atoms, with Zn and Mo in half of the octahedral voids.

Keywords

• crystal structure
• redetermination
• β-ZnMoO4
• hydrothermal synthesis
• wolframite structure type