Crystal structure of Li4ZnTeO6 and revision of Li3Cu2SbO6

Li4ZnTeO6 has been prepared by solid-state reactions and characterized by powder X-ray and neutron diffraction. It is monoclinic, C2/m, a=5.2114(3), b=8.9288(4), c=5.1768(3) Å, β=110.783(3)°. The material is structurally analogous to Li3Zn2SbO6 with LiTe substitution for ZnSb. The structure is based on honeycomb [(Li,Zn)2TeO6]3− layers interleaved with Li+ layers. Minor substitution of Zn in Li layers was detected. It is shown that Li3Cu2SbO6 known as C2/c actually belongs to the same C2/m type with halved unit cell volume.