Raman spectra of the double-anion salts M3ZnCl4NO3 (M+ = K+, Rb+, NH4)

Recently characterized K3ZnCl4NO3 and (NH4)3ZnCl4NO3, and newly prepared Rb3ZnCl4NO3 constitute a limited series of isomorphous double-anion salts (space group Pnma, Z = 4). Room-temperature (295 K) Raman spectra from polycrystalline samples of the compounds are reported and interpreted on the basis of the Cs site symmetry of the ZnCl4(2-) and NO3- ions with reference to the D2h factor group of the unit cell. The spectra are compared with Raman spectra of the corresponding M2ZnCl4 and MNO3 single-anion salts. Relative positions and frequencies of the ZnCl4(2-) modes vary considerably among the M3ZnCl4NO3 compounds, despite the isomorphism. The NO3- modes are more similar in all three compounds. The NO3- doubly degenerate v3 and V4 modes are split into two distinct bands as a result of the decent in symmetry from D3h for the free ion to Cs at the crystallographic site. The unequal intensities of the v3 bands observed for K3ZnCl4NO3 and Rb3ZnCl4NO3 and the equal intensities of the v4 bands observed for all three compounds suggest the same factor-group assignments as the high-temperature phase NH4NO3(III). The free-ion Raman-inactive planar deformation mode, v2, is evident in all three compounds, but with lesser intensity than its overtone 2v2. In K3ZnCl4NO3 and Rb3ZnCl4NO3, the symmetric stretching band, in addition to the very strong component for v1, shows a weak, low-frequency band found in many ionic nitrates, which has been attributed to thermally disordered nitrate ions or hot bands. This feature is not found in the spectrum of (NH4)3ZnCl4NO3. The 12 NH4+ ions in the unit cell of (NH4)3ZnCl4NO3, which occupy C1 and Cs sites in a 2:1 ratio, give rise to extremely broad bands that show no evidence of the individual symmetry distinctions of the cations. The broad band from NH4+ v4 obscures the region in which NO3- v3 bands are expected, but the NO3- overtone 2v2 is evident as a sharp peak above a similarly broad band from NH4+ v2.