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Single crystals of alkali aluminoboracites, A4B4Al3O12Cl (A = Li, Na), were grown using the self-flux method, and their isotypic cubic crystal structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Na4B4Al3O12Cl is the first reported sodium boracite, and its lattice parameter [13.5904 (1) Å] is the largest among the boracites consisting of a cation–oxygen framework reported so far. For both crystals, structure models refined in the cubic space group F\overline{4}3c, which assume that all cubic octant subcells in the unit cell are equivalent, converged with R1 factors of ∼0.03. However, the presence of weak hhl reflections with odd h and l values indicates that refinements in the space group F23, which presume a checkerboard-like ordering of two types of subcells with slightly different atomic positions, are more appropriate.

Single crystals of alkali aluminoboracites, A4B4Al3O12Cl (A = Li, Na), were grown using the self-flux method, and their isotypic cubic crystal structures were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Na4B4Al3O12Cl is the first reported sodium boracite, and its lattice parameter [13.5904 (1) A ° ] is the largest among the boracites consisting of a cation-oxygen framework reported so far. For both crystals, structure models refined in the cubic space group F43c, which assume that all cubic octant subcells in the unit cell are equivalent, converged with R1 factors of ~0.03. However, the presence of weak hhl reflections with odd h and l values indicates that refinements in the space group F23, which presume a checkerboard-like ordering of two types of subcells with slightly different atomic positions, are more appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]