Crystal growth and structural investigation of A2BReO6 (A=Sr, Ba; B=Li, Na)

Single crystals of the double perovskite rhenates A2BReO6 (A=Sr, Ba; B=Li, Na) were grown out of molten hydroxide fluxes. Single crystals of orange/yellow Ba2LiReO6, Ba2NaReO6 and Sr2LiReO6 were solved in the cubic, Fm-3m space group with a=8.1214(11) Å, 8.2975(3) Å, and 7.9071(15) Å, respectively, while Sr2NaReO6 was determined to be monoclinic P21/n with a=5.6737(6) Å, b=5.7988(6) Å, c=8.0431(8) Å, and β=90.02(6) °. The cubic structure consists of a rock salt lattice of corner-shared ReO6 and MO6 (M=Li, Na) octahedra which, in the monoclinic structure, are both tilted and rotated. A discrepancy exists between the symmetry of Sr2LiReO6 indicated by the single-crystal refinement of flux-grown crystals (cubic, Fm-3m) and the symmetry indicated by the powder diffraction data collected on polycrystalline samples prepared by the ceramic method (tetragonal, I4/m). It is possible that the cubic crystals are a kinetic product that forms in small quantities at low temperatures, while the powder represents the more stable polymorph that forms at higher reaction temperature.