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By using a high-pressure reaction, we prepared a new oxynitride ZnTaO

We present how the introduction of anion vacancies in oxyhydrides enables a route to access new oxynitrides, by conducting ammonolysis of perovskite oxyhydride EuTiO3-xHx (x similar to 0.18). At 400 degrees C, similar to our studies on BaTiO3-xHx, hydride lability enables a low temperature direct ammonolysis of EUTi3.82+O-2.82/H-0.18, leading to the N3-/H--exchanged product EuTi4+O2.82No0.12 square 0.06 center dot When the ammonolysis temperature was increased up to 800 degrees C, we observed a further nitridation involving N3-/O2- exchange, yielding a fully oxidized Eu3+Ti4+O2N with the GdFeO3-type distortion (Pnma) as a metastable phase, instead of pyrochlore structure. Interestingly, the same reactions using the oxide EuTiO3 proceeded through a 1:1 exchange of N3- with O-2 only above 600 degrees C and resulted in incomplete nitridation to EuTi02.25N0.75, indicating that anion vacancies created during the initial nitridation process of EuTiO2.82H0.18 play a crucial role in promoting anion (N3-/O2-) exchange at high temperatures. Hence, by using (hydride-induced) anion-deficient precursors, we should be able to expand the accessible anion composition of perovskite oxynitrides.

International audience; In synthesizing mixed anion oxides, direct syntheses have often been employed, usually involving high temperature and occasionally high pressure. Compared with these methods, here we show how the use of a titanium perovskite oxyhydride (BaTiO2.5H0.5) as a starting material enables new multistep low temperature topochemical routes to access mixed anion compounds. Similar to labile ligands in inorganic complexes, the lability of H(-) provides the necessary reactivity for syntheses, leading to reactions and products previously difficult to obtain. For example, BaTiO2.5N0.2 can be prepared with the otherwise inert N2 gas at 400-600 °C, in marked contrast with currently available oxynitride synthetic routes. F(-)/H(-) exchange can also be accomplished at 150 °C, yielding the oxyhydride-fluoride BaTi(O, H, F)3. For BaTiO2.4D0.3F0.3, we find evidence that further anionic exchange with OD(-) yields BaTiO2.4(D(-))0.26(OD(-))0.34, which implies stable coexistence of H(+) and H(-) at ambient conditions. Such an arrangement is thermodynamically unstable and would be difficult to realize otherwise. These results show that the labile nature of hydride imparts reactivity to oxide hosts, enabling it to participate in new multistep reactions and form new materials

An ideal one-dimensional (1D) magnet is expected to show exotic quantum phenomena. For compounds with larger S (S = 3/2, 2, 5/2, ...), however, a small interchain interaction J' tends to drive a conventional long-range ordered (LRO) state. Here, a new layered structure of FeF3(4,4'-bpy) (4,4'-bpy = 4,4'-bipyridyl) with novel S = 5/2 (Fe(3+)) chains has been hydrothermally synthesized by using 4,4'-bpy to separate chains. The temperature-dependent susceptibility exhibits a broad maximum at high as 164 K, suggesting a fairly strong Fe-F-Fe intrachain interaction J. However, no anomaly associated with a LRO is seen in both magnetic susceptibility and specific heat even down to 2 K. This indicates an extremely small J' with J'/J3.2 × 10(-5), making this new material a nearly ideal 1D antiferromagnet. Mössbauer spectroscopy at 2.7 K reveals a critical slowing down of the 1D fluctuations toward a possible LRO at lower temperatures.

Topochemical reduction of (layered) perovskite iron oxides with metal hydrides has so far yielded stoichiometric compositions with ordered oxygen defects with iron solely in FeO(4) square planar coordination. Using this method, we have successfully obtained a new oxygen-deficient perovskite, (Sr(1-x)Ba(x))FeO(2) (0.4 ≤ x ≤ 1.0), revealing that square planar coordination can coexist with other 3-6-fold coordination geometries. This BaFeO(2) structure is analogous to the LaNiO(2.5) structure in that one-dimensional octahedral chains are linked by planar units, but differs in that one of the octahedral chains contains a significant amount of oxygen vacancies and that all the iron ions are exclusively divalent in the high-spin state. Mössbauer spectroscopy demonstrates, despite the presence of partial oxygen occupations and structural disorders, that the planar-coordinate Fe(2+) ions are bonded highly covalently, which accounts for the formation of the unique structure. At the same time, a rigid 3D Fe-O-Fe framework contributes to structural stabilization. Powder neutron diffraction measurements revealed a G-type magnetic order with a drastic decrease of the Néel temperature compared to that of SrFeO(2), presumably due to the effect of oxygen disorder/defects. We also performed La substitution at the Ba site and found that the oxygen vacancies act as a flexible sink to accommodate heterovalent doping without changing the Fe oxidation and spin state, demonstrating the robustness of this new structure against cation substitution.

The layered compound SrFeO(2) with an FeO(4) square-planar motif exhibits an unprecedented pressure-induced spin state transition (S = 2 to 1), together with an insulator-to-metal (I-M) and an antiferromagnetic-to-ferromagnetic (AFM-FM) transition. In this work, we have studied the pressure effect on the structural, magnetic, and transport properties of the structurally related two-legged spin ladder Sr(3)Fe(2)O(5). When pressure was applied, this material first exhibited a structural transition from Immm to Ammm at P(s) = 30 ± 2 GPa. This transition involves a phase shift of the ladder blocks from (1/2,1/2,1/2) to (0,1/2,1/2), by which a rock-salt type SrO block with a 7-fold coordination around Sr changes into a CsCl-type block with 8-fold coordination, allowing a significant reduction of volume. However, the S = 2 antiferromagnetic state stays the same. Next, a spin state transition from S = 2 to S = 1, along with an AFM-FM transition, was observed at P(c) = 34 ± 2 GPa, similar to that of SrFeO(2). A sign of an I-M transition was also observed at pressure around P(c). These results suggest a generality of the spin state transition in square planar coordinated S = 2 irons of n-legged ladder series Sr(n+1)Fe(n)O(2n+1) (n = 1, 2, 3, ...). It appears that the structural transition independently occurs without respect to other transitions. The necessary conditions for a structural transition of this type and possible candidate materials are discussed.

The recently discovered SrFeO2 prepared by a soft chemical route from a precursor SrFeO3 has the "infinite layer" (IL) structure with an unprecedented FeO4 square-planar coordination. We show that the IL structure has significant solubility to yield Sr1-xCaxFeO2 (0or= xor= 1) and is thermally stable (at least as high as 1000 K for SrFeO2). These results demonstrate that the IL structure, once it is formed at low temperatures, is surprisingly robust owing to the extremely covalent nature of the Fe-O bond, thereby opening a door to chemical tuning of properties and to possible high-temperature applications.