LnOn coordination polyhedra (Ln = La-Lu) in crystal structures.

Voronoi-Dirichlet (VD) polyhedra and the method of intersecting spheres were used to analyze the crystal structures of 2,917 compounds containing 3,903 crystallographically non-equivalent types of LnO(n) polyhedra (Ln = La-Lu). It was established that Ln coordination numbers (CN) vary from 3 to 12, and 20 types of coordination polyhedra are present in the structures. Despite the great diversity of CN and types of coordination polyhedra, the volume of the VD polyhedron was found to depend only on the identity of the Ln atom and its oxidation state.