Flux synthesis, crystal structures, and physical properties of new lanthanum vanadium oxyselenides.

The new lanthanum vanadium oxyselenides LaVSe2O, La5V3Se6O7, La5V3Se7O5, La7VSe5O7, and La13V7Se16O15 were synthesized in eutectic NaI/KI fluxes, and their crystal structures were determined using single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction experiments. LaVSe2O and La5V3Se6O7 adopt known structure types, whereas La5V3Se7O5, La7VSe5O7, and La13V7Se16O15 crystallize in hitherto unknown structure types. The main building blocks of these compounds are chains of edge-sharing VSe6, VSe5O, and/or VSe4O2 octahedra, linked together by edge-sharing OLa4 and/or OLa3V tetrahedra forming fluorite-like ribbons. LaVSe2O, La5V3Se7O5, and La7VSe5O7 contain only V(iii) ions, whereby La5V3Se6O7 and La13V7Se16O15 contain mixtures of either V(iii)/V(iv) or V(iii)/V(v) cations. Magnetic measurements indicate Curie-Weiss paramagnetism and magnetic ordering of the vanadium moments at low temperatures. More precisely, we observe antiferromagnetism for La5V3Se6O7, metamagnetism for La5V3Se7O5, ferromagnetism for La7VSe5O7 and a complex magnetic structure for La13V7Se16O15.