An aqueous route to [Ta6O19]8- and solid-state studies of isostructural niobium and tantalum oxide complexes.

A new soft chemical route to [Ta6O19]8- has been developed by the dissolution of [Ta(O2)4]3- in conditions alkaline enough to arrest formation of Ta2O5, followed by [VO4]3--catalyzed decomposition of the peroxide ligands and crystallization of the salt. An average of bond lengths and angles from isostructural salts of [Ta6O19]8- and [Nb6O19]8- indicate there is an increase in terminal M(eta=O) bond lengths and M-micro2-O-M angles and a decrease in bridging micro2-O-M bond lengths in [Ta6O19]8-, although the central micro6-O-M bond lengths are identical within experimental error. Two new structures of Na7[HNb6O19].15H2O () and Na8[Ta6O19].15H2O () are exemplary of the fact that protonated micro2-OH are observed exclusively in the niobates. In these structures, the metal-oxide framework, seven sodium atoms, and all fifteen water molecules are located in identical unit cell positions, but in an eighth charge-balancing sodium is located in close proximity to the protonated micro2-OH in . Differences in the basicity of Nb(v)- and Ta(v)-bound oxygen atoms are also manifested at the surfaces of 17O-enriched powders of Nb2O5 and Ta2O5. Oxygen exchange at the surface of these materials readily takes place at both terminal and bridging sites in Nb2O5 but only at terminal sites in Ta2O5.