Détermination de la structure cristalline du ferrite de baryum Ba2Fe6O11

The crystal structure of dibarium triferrite Ba₂Fe₆O₁₁ has been solved by direct methods, using intensity data collected by means of an automated diffractometer (MoKα radiation) and corrected for absorption. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pnnm: a = 23.024(10)Å, b = 5.181(3) Å, c = 8.900(4) Å, Z = 4. Program MULTAN was successfully used for locating Ba²⁺ and most of the Fe³⁺ ions. The structure was further refined by conventional Fourier and least-squares methods (full-matrix program) to a final R value of 0.045 for 1448 observed reflections. Fe³⁺ ions occur in both octahedral (FeO mean distance: 2.02 Å) and tetrahedral (FeO mean distance: 1.865 Å) coordination. Two types of Ba²⁺ ions are found, with six and seven neighboring oxygen atoms. The structure consists of sheets of edge-shared FeO₆ octahedra which are connected by means of corner-shared tetrahedra.