Mo(15)S(20): first evidence of a new molybdenum cluster type in a metastable solid-state compound.

The Mo(15)S(20) compound was obtained by thermal decomposition of the metastable binary Mo(15)S(19) in sealed silica tube at temperatures above 500 degrees C. Its crystal structure was solved and refined from a two-component composite crystal by X-ray diffraction in the hexagonal space group P6(3)/m and consists of an equal mixture of the original Mo(9)S(27) cluster unit and the classical one Mo(6)S(8)S(6) interconnected through Mo--S bonds. The Mo core of the Mo(9)S(27) unit is totally new and formed a tricapped trigonal prism. Quantum chemical calculations carried out in order to understand these trends as well as magnetic susceptibility measurements are also reported. The title compound becomes superconducting below 5 K.