SYNTHESIS AND CRYSTAL-STRUCTURE OF HG5SB2I6

Mercury antimonide iodide, Hg5Sb2I6, previously and erroneously report ed as Hg3Sb2I4 was synthesized using standard ampoule technique. A gas -phase transport reaction was applied for preparation of single crysta ls. Hg5Sb2I6 crystallizes in the space group Pc2(1)n (No. 33) with uni t cell dimensions: a = 8.108(1), b = 10.702(1), c = 21.295(l) angstrom . Crystal structure solved using single crystal X-ray data is built of [HgSbI3] tetrahedra and [HgSbI2] triangles. All antimony atoms are jo ined into Sb24- dumbbells. The structure is compared with ones contain ing similar Sb24- dumbbells.