Neutron powder diffraction study of the layer organic–inorganic hybrid iron(II) methylphosphonate-hydrate, Fe[(CD 3PO 3)(D 2O)

Abstract

The crystal and magnetic structures of the hybrid organic–inorganic layer compound Fe[(CD 3PO 3)(D 2O)] have been studied by neutron powder diffraction as a function of temperature down to 1.5 K. The neutron diffraction pattern recorded at 200 K shows that the fully deuterated compound crystallizes in one of the two known forms of the undeuterated Fe[(CH 3PO 3)(H 2O)]. The crystal structure is orthorhombic, space group Pmn2 1, with the following unit-cell parameters: a=5.7095(1) Å, b=8.8053(3) Å and c=4.7987(1) Å; Z=2. The crystal structure remains unchanged on cooling from 200 to 1.5 K. Moreover, at low temperature, Fe[(CD 3PO 3)(D 2O)] shows a commensurate magnetic structure ( k=(0,0,0)). As revealed by bulk susceptibility measurements on Fe[(CH 3PO 3)(H 2O)], the magnetic structure corresponds to a canted antiferromagnet with a critical temperature T N=25 K. Neutron powder diffraction reveals that below T N=23.5 K the iron magnetic moments in Fe[(CD 3PO 3)(D 2O)] are antiferromagnetically coupled and oriented along the b-axis, perpendicular to the inorganic layers. No ferromagnetic component is observable in the neutron powder diffraction experiment, due to its too small value (<0.1 μ B).