Site Selectivity of Hydride in Early-Transition-Metal Ruddlesden-Popper Oxyhydrides.

Layered perovskite titanium oxyhydrides have been prepared by low-temperature topochemical CaH reduction from Ruddlesden-Popper Sr Ti O phases ( n = 1, 2) and structurally characterized by combined synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction data refinements. In the single-layered SrTiOD material, hydride anions are statistically disordered with oxides on the apical site only, as opposed to known transition-metal oxyhydrides exhibiting a preferred occupation of the equatorial site. This unprecedented site selectivity of H has been reproduced by periodic DFT+ U calculations, emphasizing for the hydride defect a difference in formation energy of 0.