Iodo-oxyapatite, the first example from a new class of modulated apatites.

Iodo-oxyapatite [pentadecacalcium iodide oxide nonaphosphate, Ca(15)(PO(4))(9)IO] was synthesized by a flux method and the structure was solved from single-crystal X-ray data. The crystal structure was refined in the space group P6(3)/m [a = 9.567 (1), c = 20.754 (2) Å and Z = 2] to wR on F of 0.0459. Iodo-oxyapatite has a typical hexagonal apatite structure but the unit cell is tripled along the hexad owing to ordering of the iodide and oxide ions along this direction.