Materials Data on LaNb2O7 by Materials Project
LaNb2O7 crystallizes in the tetragonal P4/mmm space group. The structure is two-dimensional and consists of one LaNb2O7 sheet oriented in the (0, 0, 1) direction. La is bonded to twelve O atoms to form a mixture of face and corner-sharing LaO12 cuboctahedra. There are eight shorter (2.65 Å) and four longer (2.80 Å) La–O bond lengths. Nb is bonded in a 6-coordinate geometry to six O atoms. There are a spread of Nb–O bond distances ranging from 1.76–2.27 Å. There are three inequivalent O sites. In the first O site, O is bonded to two equivalent La and two equivalent Nb atoms to form distorted OLa2Nb2 trigonal pyramids that share corners with four equivalent OLa4Nb2 octahedra, corners with ten equivalent OLa2Nb2 trigonal pyramids, edges with five equivalent OLa2Nb2 trigonal pyramids, and faces with two equivalent OLa4Nb2 octahedra. The corner-sharing octahedral tilt angles are 58°. In the second O site, O is bonded in a single-bond geometry to one Nb atom. In the third O site, O is bonded to four equivalent La and two equivalent Nb atoms to form OLa4Nb2 octahedra that share corners with four equivalent OLa4Nb2 octahedra, corners with sixteen equivalent OLa2Nb2 trigonal pyramids, edges with four equivalent OLa4Nb2 octahedra, and faces with eight equivalent OLa2Nb2 trigonal pyramids. The corner-sharing octahedral tilt angles are 0°.