Crystal structure of the low-dimensional uranium pentatelluride: UTe 5

Abstract

The crystal structure of UTe 5 ( a = 17.915(5), b = 10.407(3), c = 4.220(2) Å, Pnma, Pn2 1 a, Z =4) was refined from 822 intensities with I>3σ( I) to a conventional R factor of 0.060. The uranium coordination polyhedron is a three capped tellurium trigonal prism, and all the Te atoms are involved in TeTe bonds. The structure is built up with infinite chains of prisms stacked in the c direction. The chains are linked into ( b, c) layers by a single Te atom which exhibits some positional disorder.