New Developments in the Crystal Chemistry of Selected Borophosphates and Phosphates

• Main Author: Menezes, Prashanth W.
• Other Authors: Technische Universität Dresden, Fakultät Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden 2009
• Subjects: Borophosphates; Phosphates; Hydrothermal Synthesis; Transition Metals; Morphology; Borophosphate; Phosphate; Hydrothermalsynthese; Übergangsmetalle; Morphologie; ddc:540; rvk:VE 9507
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-25105; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-25105; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/2510/Prashanth%20W.%20Menezes%20-%20Ph.D.%20Thesis.pdf

Borophosphates are intermediate compounds of systems MxOy–B2O3–P2O5–(H2O) (M = main group or transition metal) which contain complex anionic structures built of interconnected trigonal–planar BO3 and / or BO4 and PO4 groups and their partially protonated species. The main objective of the present work was to synthesize, characterize and to study the properties of new selected 3d transition metal borophosphates. The selected four elements are scandium (Sc), iron (Fe), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) due to their interesting contributions to borophosphate structural chemistry. The mild hydrothermal method was employed for the syntheses. During the investigation of borophosphates containing alkali–metals and scandium, the following three compounds were prepared and structurally characterized: MISc[BP2O8(OH)] (MI = K, Rb), CsSc[B2P3O11(OH)3] The anionic partial structure of MISc[BP2O8(OH)] (MI = K, Rb) consists of the well known open–branched four–membered rings of alternating borate and phosphate tetrahedra (a loop–branched hexamer with B : P = 1 : 2). The anionic partial structure of CsSc[B2P3O11(OH)3] represents the new type of oligomer containing boron in three– and four– fold coordination (B : P = 2 : 3). This is also the first time that a BO3 group is not only linked to borate species but also to a phosphate tetrahedron. This kind of oligomer was already predicted for borates but was never observed. By this, CsSc[B2P3O11(OH)3] is a special compound with regard to the structural building principles of borates and borophosphates. The significant differences in the crystal structures of MISc[BP2O8(OH)] (MI = K, Rb) and CsSc[B2P3O11(OH)3] may be due to the higher coordination number of cesium. Thermal treatment (up to 1000 ºC) of these compounds resulted in white crystalline products containing new phases with unknown crystal structures. Besides the discovery of alkali–metal scandium borophosphates, five new alkali metal scandium hydrogenphosphates were synthesized and structurally characterized: Li2Sc[(PO4)(HPO4)], MISc(HPO4)2 (MI = K, Rb, Cs, NH4) It was already predicted that open framework scandium phosphates should be isotypes of the respective indium phosphates. It was also stated that there should be a whole family of scandium hydrogenphosphates as we were able to confirm with the five novel compounds. Our systematic study reveals the structural changes of the anionic partial frameworks with increasing ionic radii of the alkali–metal ion. With respect to the M―T connections (M = six coordinated central metal atom, T = four coordinated phosphorous atom) the channel size increases from 8–membered rings in Li2Sc[(PO4)(HPO4)] to 12–membered rings in MISc(HPO4)2 (MI = K, Rb, Cs, NH4). KSc(HPO4)2 exhibits a new structure type in the family of monohydrogenphosphates with the general formula MIMIII(HPO4)2. This provides further evidence that scandium is a suitable element for the synthesis of framework structures with different channel sizes. The observation that in analogy to MISc(HPO4)2 (MI = Rb, Cs, NH4) a compound exists where the MI site is replaced by H3O+ gives rise to the hope that ion exchange properties could be of interest in this class of compounds. In addition, the possible existence of further modifications (as reported for the element–combinations RbV, NH4V, RbFe, and CsIn) shoud be investigated by thermoanalytical and X–ray methods. The extensive studies on borophosphate containing the transition metals Fe, Co, Ni together with alkaline earth–metals (Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) led to the preparation of 13 compounds containing the combination of two different divalent M1IIM2II ions: CaM2II[BP2O7(OH)3] (M2II = Fe, Ni), BaM2II[BP2O8(OH)] (M2II = Fe, Co), SrFe[BP2O8(OH)2], CaCo(H2O)[BP2O8(OH)]•H2O, M1II0.5M2II(H2O)2[BP2O8]•H2O (M1II0.5 = Ca, Sr, Ba; M2II = Fe, Co, Ni) The anionic partial structure of CaM2II[BP2O7(OH)3] (M2II = Fe, Ni) consists of a tetrahedral triple [BP2O7(OH)3]4-, built from a central (HO)2BO2 tetrahedron sharing common vertices with two (H0.5)OPO3 tetrahedra. The complex anions in the crystal structure of BaM2II[BP2O8(OH)] (M2II = Fe, Co) comprises open–branched four–membered rings, [B2P4O16(OH)2]8-, which are formed by alternating (HO)BO3 and PO4 tetrahedra sharing common corners with two additional PO4 branches. The interconnection of these complex anions with M2II coordination octahedra (M2II = Fe, Co, Ni) by sharing common corners results in overall three–dimensional frameworks which contain channels filled with the M1II ions (M1II = Ca, Ba). The anionic partial structure of SrFe[BP2O8(OH)2] is built from a central (HO)2BO2 tetrahedron sharing common vertices with two PO4 tetrahedra. Surprisingly, SrFe[BP2O8(OH)2] represents the first example in the structural chemistry of borophosphates where the charge of the anionic partial structure is balanced by a divalent and a trivalent species (MIIMIII). Although being a member of the M1IIM2II[BP2O8(OH)] family the crystal structure of CaCo(H2O)[BP2O8(OH)]•H2O is different. Interestingly, this is the first case in the borophosphate structural chemistry where dimers of cobalt coordination octahedra together with borophosphate oligomers form a (two–dimensional) layered structure. The helical borophosphates M1II0.5M2II(H2O)2[BP2O8]•H2O (M1II0.5 = Ca, Sr, Ba; M2II = Fe, Co, Ni) contain one–dimensional infinite loop–branched borophosphate helices built of alternatively distorted borate and phosphate tetrahedra. Up to now, the group of compounds with 1[BP2O8]3– helical chain anions has been synthesized only in combination with different cations MIMII and MIII (MI = Li, Na, K; MII = Mg, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn; MIII = Sc, In, Fe). The systematic investigation on helical borophosphates of transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni) and alkaline–earth metals showed that it is also possible to accommodate divalent metal cations within the structure without disturbing the anionic partial structure. It was not possible to find the completely ordered structural model for the compounds M1II0.5M2II(H2O)2[BP2O8]•H2O (M1II0.5 = Ca, Sr, Ba; M2II = Co) but the substructure presented shows good agreement with the ordered known helical borophosphate compounds. Interestingly, it was also possible to judge the “kind of superstructure” against the crystal morphology. Syntheses of one of the few examples of borophosphates containing layered anionic partial structures (63 net topology) containing transition metal cations (Fe, Co, Ni) was realized with 6 isotypic compounds: MII(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O (MII = Fe, Co, Ni, Ni0.5Co0.5, Ni0.8Zn0.2, Ni0.5Mg0.5) The compounds MII(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O (MII = Fe, Co, Ni) adopt the structure type of Mg(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O characterized by a two–dimensional borophosphate anion. Substitution on the transition metal sites was shown to be possible (Ni0.5Co0.5) realized for this structure type. With the synthesis of Ni0.8Zn0.2(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O and Ni0.5Mg0.5(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O it was also proved that magnetically diluted samples can be prepared in analogy to Mg1–x Cox(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O (x = 0.25). The thermal stability of these compounds is very similar with a slight shift to higher decomposition temperatures for the Ni0.5Mg0.5(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O. In contrast to other borophosphates such as MIMII(H2O)2[BP2O8]∙H2O and MIII(H2O)2[BP2O8]∙H2O, it is not possible to rehydrate partially dehydrated samples even though the crystal structure may suggest this property. This shows that the aqua–ligands significantly contribute to the stability of the structure. The magnetic behavior of MII(H2O)2[B2P2O8(OH)2]•H2O (MII = Fe, Ni) corresponds well with separated 3d ions without strong magnetic interactions down to 1.8 K. Quite surprising was the remarkable change in the crystal habit that was observed during the synthesis upon addition of alkali–metal cations. Syntheses with the absence of alkali–metals lead to a change in the crystal habit by reducing of the number of faces in direction of the more simple prismatic morphology. Our research on borophosphates containing mixed transition metals led to the preparation of a borophosphate and a phosphate: FeCo(H2O)[BP3O9(OH)4], Fe1.3Co0.7[P2O7]∙2H2O The anionic partial structure of FeCo(H2O)[BP3O9(OH)4] is an open–branched tetramer built from (HO)BO3 sharing common O–corners with one (HO)PO3, one (HO)2PO2 and one PO4 group. The crystal structure is an isotype to Mg2(H2O)[BP3O9(OH)4]. Fe1.3Co0.7[P2O7]∙2H2O contains the diphosphate composed of two corner–sharing tetrahedra (isotypic to MII[X2O7]∙2H2O (MII = Mg, Mn, Co, Fe and X = P, As). However, the crystal structure of both, FeCo(H2O)[BP3O9(OH)4] and Fe1.3Co0.7[P2O7]∙2H2O, contains octahedral zigzag chains, which are interconnected by the respective tetrahedral anions. The octahedral chains in these crystal structures are closely related to the octahedral arrangements in MIIH2P2O7 (MII = Co, Ni) which exhibit a field-induced metamagnetic behavior from an antiferromagnetic state to a ferromagnetic state and to MII[BPO4(OH)2] (MII = Mn, Fe, Co) which indicate a low-dimensional antiferromagnetic correlation of the MII ions by dominant exchange interactions within the one–dimensional octahedral chain structure. Therefore, due to the similar structural features, FeCo(H2O)[BP3O9(OH)4] and Fe1.3Co0.7[P2O7]∙2H2O may exhibit interesting magnetic properties. Thermal investigation revealed that both compounds are stable until 300 ºC and transform into pyrophosphates at higher temperatures. Fe1.3Co0.7[P2O7]∙2H2O represents the first hydrated mixed divalent cation diphosphate.