MZ-35, a new layered pentasil borosilicate synthesized in the presence of large alkali cations

•Coupled electron and X-ray diffractions are a powerful tool for structure solving.•Cesium, a large alkali cation, is an effective template for layered borosilicates.•Face-sharing inversion of tetrahedra correlates two configurations of MZ-35.

A new layered borosilicate has been synthesized in the presence of cesium and sodium cations and its structure has been solved by a combination of automated diffraction tomography (ADT) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD). MZ-35 has a composition NaCs2[BSi7O16(OH)2](OH)2·4H2O and features space group P-4m2. The unusually small unit cell (a 7.3081 Å, c 10.7520 Å) is shared by two random-stacked configurations of the structure: a network of connected pentasil units related to the layer of RUB-18 and a bidimensional checkerboard of intersecting ladders of 4-membered rings. The two configurations are related by the simple face-sharing inversion of a hydroxyl-bearing tetrahedron.

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