A new high pressure form of Ba3NiSb2O9

The interest in finding experimental realization of Quantum Liquid Spin phases leads us to elaborate polycrystalline samples of the 6H-B phase of Ba3NiSb2O9 . This structure shows Ni triangular planes and the first magnetic characterizations confirm the absence of any magnetic order as expected for QLS. The samples were synthesized by treatment under HP-HT of the 6H-A phase of Ba3NiSb2O9. The optimized synthesis conditions were 2.5 GPa and 620{\deg}C. By combining several technics as XRD, NPD and TEM we show that even the obtained compound is in fact a new form of Ba3NiSb2O9, that corresponds to a new stacking along c. This preserves the presence of Ni planes but results in a loss of the hexagonal symmetry. The TEM is helpful to conclude to a trigonal symmetry at a scale of 10nm.
Comment: 5 figures submitted to Journal of Solid State Chemistry on 9/12/2015_ revised version on 30/01/2016