NAAUGE, A FURTHER TERNARY AURIDE WITH ETH ANE ANALOGOUS GE2AU6 BUILDING UNITS

Black, brittle single crystals of NaAuGe were obtained by the reaction of NaN3, gold sponge and germanium at 800 degrees C. The structure wa s determined from X-ray single-crystal diffractometry data: space grou p Imm2, Z = 4, a = 4.422(1) Angstrom, b = 7.238(2) Angstrom, c = 7.531 (2) Angstrom, R1/wR2 = 0.0195/0.0482, N(F-o(2)) greater than or equal to 2 sigma(F-o(2)) = 811 and N(var.) = 21. NaAuGe crystallizes in a ne w ternary variant of the KHg2 (CeCu2)structure type. Gold and germaniu m form puckered (2)(infinity)[AuGeS3/3] layers with trigonal planar co ordinated gold. The (2)(infinity)[AUGe(3/3)] nets are connected to a f ramework structure via Ge-Ge contacts along [010] which consist of eth ane analogous Ge2Au6 building units. The sodium atoms are placed in ch annels of the Au-Ge framework structure which run along [100] and [010 ].