Redetermination of the crystal structure of β-zinc molybdate from single-crystal X-ray diffraction data

The crystal structure of the β-polymorph of ZnMoO4 was re-determined on the basis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. In comparison with previous powder X-ray diffraction studies [Katikaneani & Arunachalam (2005 ▸). Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. pp. 3080-3087; Cavalcante et al. (2013 ▸). Polyhedron, 54, 13-25], all atoms were refined with anisotropic displacement parameters, leading to a higher precision with respect to bond lengths and angles. β-ZnMoO4 adopts the wolframite structure type and is composed of distorted ZnO6 and MoO6 octa-hedra, both with point group symmetry 2. The distortion of the octa-hedra is reflected by variation of bond lengths and angles from 2.002 (3)-2.274 (4) Å, 80.63 (11)-108.8 (2)° for equatorial and 158.4 (2)- 162.81 (14)° for axial angles (ZnO6), and of 1.769 (3)-2.171 (3) Å, 73.39 (16)-104.7 (2), 150.8 (2)-164.89 (15)° (MoO6), respectively. In the crystal structure, the same type of MO6 octa-hedra share edges to built up zigzag chains extending parallel to [001]. The two types of chains are condensed by common vertices into a framework structure. The crystal structure can alternatively be described as derived from a distorted hexa-gonally closed packed arrangement of the O atoms, with Zn and Mo in half of the octa-hedral voids.