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An ionothermally prepared S = 1/2 vanadium oxyfluoride kagome lattice

Nature Chemistry volume 3, pages 801–806 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Frustrated magnetic lattices offer the possibility of many exotic ground states that are of great fundamental importance. Of particular significance is the hunt for frustrated spin-1/2 networks as candidates for quantum spin liquids, which would have exciting and unusual magnetic properties at low temperatures. The few reported candidate materials have all been based on d9 ions. Here, we report the ionothermal synthesis of [NH4]2[C7H14N][V7O6F18], an inorganic–organic hybrid solid that contains a S = 1/2 kagome network of d1 V4+ ions. The compound exhibits a high degree of magnetic frustration, with significant antiferromagnetic interactions but no long-range magnetic order or spin-freezing above 2 K, and appears to be an excellent candidate for realizing a quantum spin liquid ground state in a spin-1/2 kagome network.

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Figure 1: Structure of the kagome and double pillared layers in [NH4]2[C7H14N][V7O6F18].
Figure 2: Polyhedra views of the structure of [NH4]2[C7H14N][V7O6F18].
Figure 3: Magnetic properties of [NH4]2[C7H14N][V7O6F18].

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank L. Downie, L. Clark and A. Kusmartseva for help with the magnetic measurements, and C. Tang and D. Allan for assistance with synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The authors acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for funding. Thanks also go to A. Harrison for helpful discussions. R.E.M. is a Royal Society Industry Fellow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and EaStChem, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9ST, Fife, UK

    Farida H. Aidoudi, David W. Aldous, Richard J. Goff, Alexandra M. Z. Slawin, Russell E. Morris & Philip Lightfoot

  2. School of Chemistry, EaStChem and Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JJ, UJ

    J. Paul Attfield

Authors
  1. Farida H. Aidoudi
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  2. David W. Aldous
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Contributions

F.H.A. and D.W.A. carried out the synthetic chemistry. F.H.A. solved the crystal structure, with the assistance of A.M.Z.S. F.H.A. and R.J.G. analysed the magnetic data, under the guidance of J.P.A. P.L. and R.E.M. initiated the research and co-wrote the paper. P.L. coordinated the project.

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Correspondence to Philip Lightfoot.

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Crystallographic data for compound 1 (CIF 11 kb)

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Aidoudi, F., Aldous, D., Goff, R. et al. An ionothermally prepared S = 1/2 vanadium oxyfluoride kagome lattice. Nature Chem 3, 801–806 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1129

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