Quaternary Equiatomic Compounds LnZnSbO (Ln = La - Nd, Sm) with ZrCuSiAs-Type Structure

Abstract The five compounds LnZnSbO (Ln = La - Nd, Sm) were prepared by annealing cold-pressed pellets of the lanthanoids, zinc oxide, and antimony, or by reacting these components in a NaCl/KCl flux. They crystallize with the tetragonal ZrCuSiAs type structure, which was refined from single-crystal X-ray data of CeZnSbO : P 4/nmm, a = 419.76(4), c = 947.4(1) pm, Z = 2, R = 0.022 for 165 structure factors and 12 variable parameters. Chemical bonding in this and the formally isotypic compound CeZn 1-x Sb 2 is briefly discussed.