Example of unusual tetrahedral coordination of Cu(I) in oxides: Cu3VO4

The crystal structure of the copper vanadate Cu3VO4, determined by X-ray powder diffraction, shows tetrahedral coordination of Cu(I) which is particularly unusual in oxides. Cu3VO4 presents a tetragonal unit-cell, isotypic to the famatinite Cu3SbS4, with the following parameters: a = 4.57531(9) Å; c = 8.9918(3) Å; space group I-42m. Its structure can be described as a three dimensional framework of corner shared CuO4 and VO4 tetrahedra, distributed in an ordered way and forming pure copper-oxide layers [Cu2O4]∞ alternating with mixed copper/vanadium oxide layers [CuVO4]∞. In the latter one observes a 1:1 ordering of the CuO4 and VO4 tetrahedra forming [CuVO3]∞ chains running along the [110] direction.

Graphical abstractCrystal structure of Cu3VO4 determined by powder X-ray diffraction with unusual tetrahedral coordination for univalent copper Cu(I) in oxides.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide