LiB12PC, the first boron-rich metal boride with phosphorus--synthesis, crystal structure, hardness, spectroscopic investigations

We present synthesis, crystal structure, hardness, and IR/Raman and UV/Vis spectra of a new compound with the mean composition LiB₁₂PC. Transparent single crystals were synthesised from Ga, Li, B, red phosphorus and C at 1500 °C in boron nitride crucibles welded in Ta ampoules. Depending on the type of boron used for the synthesis we obtained colourless, brown and red single crystals with slightly different P/C ratios. Colourless LiB₁₂PC crystallizes orthorhombic in the space group Imma (No. 74) with a=10.188(2) Å, b=5.7689(11) Å, c=8.127(2) Å and Z=4. Brown LiB₁₂P_0.89C_1.11 is very similar, but with a lower P content. Red single crystals of LiB₁₂P_1.13C_0.87 have a larger unit cell with a=10.4097(18) Å, b=5.9029(7) Å, c=8.2044(12) Å. EDX measurements confirm that the red crystals contain more phosphorus than the other ones. The crystal structure is characterized by a covalent network of B₁₂ icosahedra connected by exohedral B? B bonds and P? P, P? C or C? C units. Li atoms are located in interstitials. The structure is closely related to MgB₇, LiB₁₃C₂ and ScB₁₃C. LiB₁₂PC fulfils the electron counting rules of Wade and also Longuet‐Higgins. Measurements of Vickers micro‐hardness (H_V=27 GPa) revealed that LiB₁₂PC is a hard material. The optical band gaps obtained from UV/Vis spectra match the colours of the crystals. Furthermore we report on the IR and Raman spectra.