Dehydration synthesis and crystal structure of terbium oxychloride, TbOCl

Abstract

Terbium oxychloride, TbOCl, was synthesized via the simple heat-treatment of TbCl3·6H2O and its structure was determined by refinement against X-ray powder diffraction data. TbOCl crystallizes with the matlockite (PbFCl) structure in the tetragonal space group P4/nmm and is composed of alternating (001) layers of (TbO) n and n Cl-. The unit-cell parameters, unit-cell volume, and density were compared to the literature data of other isostructural rare-earth oxychlorides in the same space group and showed good agreement when compared to the calculated trendlines.