A Synthetic Route toward Layered Materials: Introducing Stereochemically Active Lone-Pairs into Transition Metal Oxohalides

The synthesis and crystal structure
of eight new layered compounds
in the (Mn2+, Fe2+)-(Sb3+, Te4+)-O-(Cl, Br) system are presented. Mn5Te4O12Cl2 (1), MnSb4O6Cl2 (2), Mn2Sb3O6Cl (3), Mn9Sb8O16Cl10 (4), Fe3Sb2O4Br4 (5), Fe7Sb10O18X8 [X = Cl (6), Br
(7)], and Mn7Sb10O18Br8 (8). All of the compounds are made up
of charge neutral layers held together through van der Waals interactions,
except for compound 2, which has positively charged layers
with halide ions between them that act as counterions. The transition
metal atoms are confined in sheets within the layers and are thus
well separated from each other along the stacking direction. The synthesis
concept is based on utilizing both halide ions and p-elements having
a stereochemically active lone pair that both act to open up crystal
structures. This combination has proven to be a successful synthetic
approach for finding new layered inorganic materials containing transition
metals.