Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of the praseodymium borate-nitrate Pr[B5O8(OH)(H2O)0.87]NO3·2H2O

Abstract

Abstract The praseodymium borate-nitrate Pr[B5O8(OH)(H2O)0.87]NO3·2H2O was obtained in a hydrothermal synthesis. It crystallizes monoclinically in the space group P21/n (no. 14) with four formula units (Z=4) and unit cell parameters of a=641.9(3), b=1551.8(7), c=1068.4(5) pm, with β=90.54(2)° yielding V=1.0643(8) nm3. The defect variant constitutes the missing member in the series of isostructural, early rare earth borate-nitrates of the composition RE[B5O8(OH)(H2O) x ]NO3·2H2O [RE=La (x=0; 1), Ce (x=1), Nd (x=0.85), Sm (x=0)]. In addition to powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, the novel borate-nitrate was characterized through IR and Raman spectroscopy.