The structural architecture found in low-dimensional materials can lead to a number of interesting physical properties including anisotropic conductivity, magnetic frustration and non-linear optical properties. There is no standard synthesis concept described thus far to apply when searching for new low-dimensional compounds, and therefore control on the design of the new materials is of great importance.This thesis describes the synthesis, crystal structure and characterization of some new transition metal oxohalide compounds containing p-elements having a stereochemically active lone-pair. First row transition metal cations have been used in combination with SeIV, SbIII and TeIV ions as lone-pair elements and Cl- and Br- as halide ions. The lone-pairs do not participate in covalent bonding and are responsible for an asymmetric one-sided coordination. Lone-pair elements in combination with halide ions have shown to be powerful structural spacers that can confine transition metal building blocks into low-dimensional arrangements. The halide ions and lone-pairs reside in non-bonded crystal volumes where they interact through weak van der Waals forces. The transition metal atoms are most often arranged to form sheets, chains or small clusters; most commonly layered compounds are formed.To further explore the chemical system and to separate the transition metal entities even more the possibility to include tetrahedral building blocks such as phosphate-, silicate-, sulphate- and vanadate building blocks into this class of compounds has been investigated. Tetrahedral building blocks are well known for their ability of segmenting structural arrangements by corner sharing, which often leads to the formation of open framework structures. The inclusion of tetrahedral building blocks led to the discovery of interesting structural features such as complex hydrogen bonding, formation of unusual solid solutions or faulted stacking of layers.Compounds for which phase pure material could be synthesized have been characterized in terms of their magnetic properties. Most compounds were found to have antiferromagnetic spin interactions and indications of magnetic frustration could be observed in some of them. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 6: Manuscript. Paper 9: Manuscript. Paper 10: Manuscript.</p>

<p>Complex transition metals oxyhalides containing a lone pair element, such as tellurium (IV), form an attractive research field because there is a high probability of finding new low-dimensionally arranged compounds and, particularly, a low-dimensionally arranged transition metals substructures, leading to interesting physical properties. Tellurium (IV) can drive the formation of many unusual structures because of its stereochemically active lone pair electrons, E. It commonly takes a coordination of three or four oxygen atoms to form either a TeO3E square pyramid or a TeO3+1E trigonal bipyramid. These lone pairs are very important players involved in lowering the dimensionality of crystal structures. Previous studies in transition metal tellurium (IV) oxohalide quarternary systems revealed a family of compounds, many of which exhibit interesting properties e.g. magnetic frustration. The unique point of this thesis is to employ alkaline earth elements (AE) to augment this ability of lone pair elements to lower the dimensionality of the transition metal arrangements. By this double usage of “chemical scissors” (a lone pair element used in conjunction with alkaline earth elements) we obtained new types of low-dimensionally arranged compounds.</p><p>This thesis is focused on the syntheses and characterization of a series of compounds in the pentanary (five components) system AE-TeIV-TM-O-X (AE=alkaline earth metal, TM=transition metal and X=halogen), in which nine new compounds were found. The crystal structures of each of these compounds were determined by the single crystal X-ray diffraction data.</p>

Complex transition metals oxyhalides containing a lone pair element, such as tellurium (IV), form an attractive research field because there is a high probability of finding new low-dimensionally arranged compounds and, particularly, a low-dimensionally arranged transition metals substructures, leading to interesting physical properties. Tellurium (IV) can drive the formation of many unusual structures because of its stereochemically active lone pair electrons, E. It commonly takes a coordination of three or four oxygen atoms to form either a TeO3E square pyramid or a TeO3+1E trigonal bipyramid. These lone pairs are very important players involved in lowering the dimensionality of crystal structures. Previous studies in transition metal tellurium (IV) oxohalide quarternary systems revealed a family of compounds, many of which exhibit interesting properties e.g. magnetic frustration. The unique point of this thesis is to employ alkaline earth elements (AE) to augment this ability of lone pair elements to lower the dimensionality of the transition metal arrangements. By this double usage of “chemical scissors” (a lone pair element used in conjunction with alkaline earth elements) we obtained new types of low-dimensionally arranged compounds. This thesis is focused on the syntheses and characterization of a series of compounds in the pentanary (five components) system AE-TeIV-TM-O-X (AE=alkaline earth metal, TM=transition metal and X=halogen), in which nine new compounds were found. The crystal structures of each of these compounds were determined by the single crystal X-ray diffraction data.