La₃ B₆ O₁₃ (OH): The First Acentric High-Pressure Borate Displaying Edge-Sharing BO₄ Tetrahedra

La₃ B₆ O₁₃ (OH) was obtained by a high-pressure/high-temperature experiment at 6 GPa and 1673 K. The compound crystallizes in the space group P2₁ (no. 4) with the lattice parameters a=4.785(2), b=12.880(4), c=7.433(3) Å, and β=90.36(10)°, and is built up of corner- as well as edge-sharing BO₄ tetrahedra. It represents the first acentric high-pressure borate containing these B₂ O₆ entities. The compound develops borate layers of "sechser"-rings with the La³⁺ cations positioned between the layers. Single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction, vibrational and MAS NMR spectroscopy, second-harmonic generation (SHG) and thermoanalytical measurements, as well as computational methods were used to affirm the proposed structure and the B₂ O₆ entities.