Syntheses, crystal structures and magnetic properties of ternary rare-earth zirconium selenides, Ln(2)ZrSe(5) (Ln = Ce-Nd)

摘要

Three new ternary rare-earth zirconium chalcogenides, Ce2ZrSe5 (1), Pr2ZrSe5 (2) and Nd2ZrSe5 (3), have been synthesized by a facile solid-state route with boron as the reducing reagent. They crystallize in the space group Pnma of the orthorhombic system, belonging to the U3Se5 structure type. Their 3-D structures are constructed by parallel polyanionic {[ZrSe5](6-)}(n) chains and LnSe(8) bicapped trigonal prisms. The magnetic susceptibilities' data indicate their antiferromagnetic-like behavior without magnetic order down to 2 K. The structural relationships among several similar structures are discussed, together with the lanthanide contraction in the Ln(2)ZrSe(5) system. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.