The Crystal Structure of InGaO3(ZnO)4: A Single Crystal X‐ray and Electron Diffraction Study

The crystal structure of the mixed oxide InGaO₃(ZnO)₄ has been determined from electron diffraction and single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction data. The compound crystallises in a hexagonal space group (P6₃/mmc; No. 194), deduced from convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED). Single crystals of InGaO₃(ZnO)₄ were grown from a K₂MoO₄ flux in sealed platinum tubes. Single crystal structure refinement from XRD data a = 3.2850(2) Å; c = 32.906(3) Å; Z = 2; 4232 data, R₁ = 0.0685] reveals a compound with oxygen anions forming a closest‐packed arrangement. Within this packing In³⁺ cations occupy octahedral interstices, forming layers of edge sharing octahedra. In between these layers are regions with composition Zn₄GaO₅]⁺ forming a wurtzite type of structure. Inversions of the ZnO₄ tetrahedra occurs (i) at the InO₆ octahedral layer and (ii) halfway in the wurtzite type region, where the inversion boundary is built by Ga³⁺ in trigonal bipyramidal coordination with a long Ga–O_apical distance of 2.19(1) Å. The site occupation of Zn²⁺ and Ga³⁺, respectively, was confirmed by bond valence sum calculations. The compounds described here have the same structural charactistics as other known members with general formula ARO₃(ZnO)_m with m = integer.