Crystallographic features of ammonium fluoroelpasolites: dynamic orientational disorder in crystals of (NH4)3HfF7 and (NH4)3Ti(O2)F5

Abstract

A classical elpasolite-type structure is considered with respect to dynamically disordered ammonium fluoro-(oxofluoro-)metallates. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data from high quality (NH4)3HfF7 and (NH4)3Ti(O2)F5 samples enabled the refinement of the ligand and cationic positions in the cubic Fm \bar 3 m (Z = 4) structure. Electron-density atomic profiles show that the ligand atoms are distributed in a mixed (split) position instead of 24e. One of the ammonium groups is disordered near 8c so that its central atom (N1) forms a tetrahedron with vertexes in 32f. However, a center of another group (N2) remains in the 4b site, whereas its H atoms (H2) occupy the 96k positions instead of 24e and, together with the H3 atom in the 32f position, they form eight spatial orientations of the ammonium group. It is a common feature of all ammonium fluoroelpasolites with orientational disorder of structural units of a dynamic nature.