Crystal structure of the deuterated heptahydrate of potassium phosphate, K3PO4·7D2O

Abstract

Deuterated potassium orthophosphate heptahydrate, K3PO4·7D2O, crystallizes in the Sohnke space group P21, and its absolute structure was determined from 2017 Friedel pairs [Flack parameter 0.004 (16)]. Each of the three crystallographically unique K+ cations is surrounded by six water molecules and one oxygen atom from the orthophosphate group, using a threshold for K—O bonds of 3.10 Å. The highly irregular coordination polyhedra are linked by corner- and edge-sharing into a three-dimensional network that is consolidated by an intricate network of O—D...O hydrogen bonds of medium strength.

Keywords

• crystal structure
• potassium phosphate
• hydrogen bonding
• absolute structure
• hydrate