Ba₃Mg₄Au₄ – a ternary auride composed of BaAu₂- and BaMg₂Au-related slabs

Abstract The ternary auride Ba3Mg4Au4 was synthesized from the elements in a sealed tantalum ampoule. The Ba3Mg4Au4 structure was refined from single-crystal X-ray diffractometer data: Gd3Cu4Ge4 type, space group Immm, a = 447.95(10), b = 843.07(18), c = 1564.2(5) pm, wR2 = 0.0935, 680 F 2 values, 23 variables. Ba3Mg4Au4 is a 1:2 intergrowth structure of BaAu2-(AlB2 type) and BaMg2Au-(MgCuAl2 type) related slabs. The two crystallographically independent gold atoms both have tricapped trigonal prismatic coordination, i.e. Au1@Mg6Ba3 and Au2@Mg2Ba6Au. The Au–Mg (284–303 pm) and Ba–Au (331–349 pm) distances cover small ranges that are close to the sums of the covalent radii. The magnesium atoms in the MgCuAl2-related slab show Mg–Mg distances of 320–332 pm. The different coloring variants of the Gd3Cu4Ge4 type are briefly discussed.