The Structure and Properties of BETA-La3RuO7: A New Structure Type with Isolated RuO6 Octahedra

A second lanthanum ruthenium oxide with the formula La3RuO7 is reported. This compound, BETA-La3RuO7, crystallizes in the P21/c space group with a unit cell of a=8.8388(3) ?, b=5.6960(1) ?, c=12.5830(3) ?, and BETA=104.729(1) °, as refined from powder neutron diffraction data. The two major structural motifs in this structure are isolated RuO6 octahedra and edgesharing chains of OLa4 tetrahedra. Magnetic susceptibility measurements show this compound to have a magnetic moment of MUeff=3.92MU and a Weiss constant of =-70 K.