Binary boron-rich borides of magnesium: single-crystal investigations and properties of MgB(7) and the new boride Mg(∼5)B(44).

Single crystals of dark-red MgB(7) were grown from the elements in a Cu-melt. The crystal structure (Pearson symbol oI64; space group Imma; a = 10.478(2) Å, b = 5.977(1) Å, c = 8.125(2) Å, 2842 reflns, 48 params, R(1)(F) = 0.018, R(2)(I) = 0.034) consists of a hexagonal-primitive packing of B(12)-icosahedra and B(2)-units in trigonal-prismatic voids. According to the UV-vis spectra and band structure calculations MgB(7) is semiconducting with an optical gap of 1.9 eV. The long B-B distance of 2.278 Å within the B(2)-unit can be seen as a weak bonding interaction. The new Mg(∼5)B(44) occurs beside the well-known MgB(12) as a byproduct. Small fragments of the black crystals are dark-yellow and transparent. The crystal structure (Pearson symbol tP196, space group P4(1)2(1)2, a = 10.380(2) Å, c = 14.391(3) Å, 4080 reflns, 251 params, R(1)(F) = 0.025, R(2)(I) = 0.037) is closely related to tetragonal boron-II (t-B(192)). It consists of B(12)-icosahedra and B(19+1)-units. With a charge of -6 for the B(19+1)-units and a Mg-content of ∼20 Mg-atoms per unit cell the observed Mg content in Mg(∼5)B(44) is quite close to the expected value derived from simple electron counting rules. All compositions were confirmed by EDXS. The microhardness was measured on single crystals for MgB(7) (H(V) = 2125, H(K) = 2004) and MgB(12) (H(V) = 2360, H(K) = 2459).