Crystal structure, thermal and magnetic properties of Cr2V4O13

Cr2V4O13, a tetravanadate of Cr3+ has been prepared by repeated heating of stoichiometric amounts of Cr2O3 and V2O5 and its crystal structure is refined by Rietveld refinement of the powder XRD data. This compound crystallizes in a monoclinic lattice with unit cell parameters: a=8.2651(3), b=9.2997(3), c=14.5215(5) Å, β=102.618(3)°, V=1089.21(6) Å3 and Z=4 (Space group: P21/c). The U shaped (V4O13)6− formed by corner connected VO4 tetrahedra links the Cr2O10 (dimers of two edge shared CrO6 octahedra) forming a three dimensional network structure of Cr2V4O13. This compound is stable up to 635 °C and peritectically decomposes to orthorhombic CrVO4 and V2O5 above this temperature. A possible long range antiferromagnetic ordering below 10 K is suggested from the squid magnetometry and electron paramagnetic resonance (epr) spectroscopic studies of Cr2V4O13.