Key indicators: single-crystal X-ray study; T = 120 K; mean (Bi-Cd) = 0.001 Å; disorder in main residue; R factor = 0.032; wR factor = 0.073; data-to-parameter ratio = 17.3.Ba 2 Cd 2.13 Bi 3 O, a new bismuthide(-I,-III) oxide, crystallizes with a novel body-centered tetragonal structure (Pearson code tI36). The crystal structure contains eight crystallographically unique sites in the asymmetric unit, all on special positions. Two Ba, one Cd and two Bi atoms have site symmetry 4mm, the third Bi atom has mmm. and the O atom has 4m2 symmetry; the second Cd site (2mm. symmetry) is not fully occupied. The layered structure is complex and can be considered as an intergrowth of two types of slabs, viz. BaCdBiO with the ZrCuSiAs type and BaCd 2 Bi 2 with the CeMg 2 Si 2 type.
Related literatureIsotypic compounds are not known; however, there are several compounds whose structures are based on fused CdBi 4 tetrahedral fragments, including BaCdBi 2 (Brechtel et al., 1981) (Cordier et al., 1982;Xia & Bobev, 2006b). The serendipitous discovery of the title compound was the result of a systematic study of the Ba-Cd-Bi system, inspired from the identification of Ba 3 Cd 2 Sb 4 (Saparov et al., 2008). The compound BaCdSbF (Saparov & Bobev, 2010) is an example of a structure that epitomizes the BaCdBiO slabs. Recently, the idea that intermetallic oxide-pnictides and fluoride-pnictides could be a widespread class of quaternary solids has been discussed on the examples of Ba 5 Cd 2 Sb 5 O x (0.5