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Two new barium iron pnictide–selenides, Ba2FeSbSe5 and Ba2FeBiSe5, were synthesized by a high-temperature solid-state route and their crystal structures were determined using single crystal X-ray diffraction. Both compounds are isomorphic to the high pressure phase Ba3FeS5 and crystallize in the orthorhombic space group Pnma (No. 62) with cell parameters of a=12.603(2)/12.619(2) A, b=9.106(1)/9.183(1) A, c=9.145(1)/9.123(1) A and Z=4 for Ba2FeSbSe5 and Ba2FeBiSe5, respectively. According to differential scanning calorimetry, Ba2FePnSe5 compounds exhibit high thermal stability and melt congruently at 1055(5) K (Pn=Sb) and 1105(5) K (Pn=Bi). Magnetic characterizations reveal strong antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor interactions in both compounds resulting in an antiferromagnetic ordering at 58(1) K for Ba2FeSbSe5 and 79(2) K for Ba2FeBiSe5. The magnetic interactions between Fe3+ centers, which are at least 6 A apart from each other, are mediated by superexchange interactions.

In this paper, an ambient-pressure solution route and an improved solvothermal synthetic method have been developed to produce polycrystalline powders and large single crystals of NH4MCl2(HCOO) (M=Fe, Co, Ni). The magnetic structure of the 1D linear chain compound NH4FeCl2(HCOO) has been determined by low-temperature neutron powder diffraction, revealing ferromagnetic intra-chain interactions and antiferromagnetic inter-chain interactions. Finally, the newly-reported Co and Ni analogs are isostructural with NH4FeCl2(HCOO), but there are significant differences in the magnetic properties of each compound; the Ni analog behaves similarly to the Fe compound but with stronger magnetic coupling, exhibiting antiferromagnetic ordering (TN=8.5 K) and a broad metamagnetic transition between 2 and 5 T, while the Co analog does not order magnetically above 2 K, despite strong antiferromagnetic nearest-neighbor interactions.