Syntheses, structure and rare earth metal photoluminescence of new and known isostructural A2Mo4Sb2O18 (A=Ce, Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) compounds

Nine new A2Mo4Sb2O18 (A=Ce, Pr, Eu, Tb, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) compounds have been synthesized by solid-state reactions. They are isostructural with six reported analogues of yttrium and other lanthanides and the monoclinic unit cell parameters of all fifteen of them vary linearly with the size of A3+ ion. Single crystal X-ray structures of eight A2Mo4Sb2O18 (A=Ce, Pr, Eu, Gd, Tb, Ho, Er, Tm) compounds have been determined. Neat A2Mo4Sb2O18 (A=Pr, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm) compounds exhibit characteristic rare earth metal photoluminescence.