Intra- and Interchain Interactions in (CuAu)CN, (AgAu)CN, and (CuAgAu)CN and Their Effect on One-, Two-, and Three-Dimensional Order.

Mixed-metal cyanides (CuAu)CN, (AgAu)CN, and (CuAgAu)CN adopt an AuCN-type structure in which metal-cyanide chains pack on a hexagonal lattice with metal atoms arranged in sheets. The interactions between and within the metal-cyanide chains are investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, C solid-state NMR (SSNMR), and X-ray pair distribution function (PDF) measurements. Long-range metal and cyanide order is found within the chains: (-Cu-NC-Au-CN-), (-Ag-NC-Au-CN-), and (-Cu-NC-Ag-NC-Au-CN-).

New insights into the compressibility and high-pressure stability of Ni(CN)2: a combined study of neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, and inelastic neutron scattering.

Nickel cyanide is a layered material showing markedly anisotropic behaviour. High-pressure neutron diffraction measurements show that at pressures up to 20.1 kbar, compressibility is much higher in the direction perpendicular to the layers, c, than in the plane of the strongly chemically bonded metal-cyanide sheets.

Chemistry and structure by design: ordered CuNi(CN)4 sheets with copper(ii) in a square-planar environment.

Layered copper-nickel cyanide, CuNi(CN)4, a 2-D negative thermal expansion material, is one of a series of copper(ii)-containing cyanides derived from Ni(CN)2. In CuNi(CN)4, unlike in Ni(CN)2, the cyanide groups are ordered generating square-planar Ni(CN)4 and Cu(NC)4 units. The adoption of square-planar geometry by Cu(ii) in an extended solid is very unusual.

Local and average structure in zinc cyanide: toward an understanding of the atomistic origin of negative thermal expansion.

Neutron diffraction at 11.4 and 295 K and solid-state (67)Zn NMR are used to determine both the local and the average structures in the disordered, negative thermal expansion (NTE) material, Zn(CN)2. Solid-state NMR not only confirms that there is head-to-tail disorder of the C≡N groups present in the solid, but yields information about the relative abundances of the different Zn(CN)4–n(NC)n tetrahedral species, which do not follow a simple binomial distribution.

Mixed copper, silver, and gold cyanides, (M(x)M'(1-x))CN: tailoring chain structures to influence physical properties.

Binary mixed-metal variants of the one-dimensional MCN compounds (M = Cu, Ag, and Au) have been prepared and characterized using powder X-ray diffraction, vibrational spectroscopy, and total neutron diffraction. A solid solution with the AgCN structure exists in the (Cu(x)Ag(1-x))CN system over the range (0 ≤ x ≤ 1). Line phases with compositions (Cu(1/2)Au(1/2))CN, (Cu(7/12)Au(5/12))CN, (Cu(2/3)Au(1/3))CN, and (Ag(1/2)Au(1/2))CN, all of which have the AuCN structure, are found in the gold-containing systems.