Quaternary pnictides with complex, noncentrosymmetric structures. Synthesis and structural characterization of the new Zintl phases Na11Ca2Al3Sb8, Na4CaGaSb3, and Na15Ca3In5Sb12.

Three new Zintl phases, Na11Ca2Al3Sb8, Na4CaGaSb3, and Na15Ca3In5Sb12, have been synthesized by solid-state reactions, and their structures have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Na11Ca2Al3Sb8 crystallizes with its own structure type (Pearson index oP48) with the primitive orthorhombic space group Pmn2(1) (No. 31). The structure is best viewed as [Al3Sb8](15-) units of fused AlSb4 tetrahedra, a novel type of Zintl ion, with Na(+) and Ca(2+) cations that solvate them. Na4CaGaSb3 also crystallizes in its own type with the primitive monoclinic space group Pc (No. 7; Pearson index mP36), and its structure boasts one-dimensional [GaSb3](6-) helical chains of corner-shared GaSb4 tetrahedra. The third new compound, Na15Ca3In5Sb12, crystallizes with the recently reported K2BaCdSb2 structure type (space group Pmc2(1); Pearson index oP12). The Na15Ca3In5Sb12 structure is based on polyanionic layers made of corner-shared InSb4 tetrahedra. Approximately one-sixth of the In sites are vacant in a statistical manner. All three structures exhibit similarities to the TiNiSi structure type, and the corresponding relationships are discussed. Electronic band structure calculations performed using the tight-binding linear muffin-tin orbital atomic sphere approximation method show small band gaps for all three compounds, which suggests intrinsic semiconducting behavior for these materials.