A fully
ordered noncentrosymmetric barium molybdenum oxyfluoride,
α-BaMoO2F4, has been synthesized by a
hydrothermal reaction at 200 °C in a concentrated hydrofluoric
acid solution. A centrosymmetric polymorph with O/F disorder, β-BaMoO2F4, has been obtained in several minutes when the
reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature in the same medium.
Interestingly, we found that the metastable β-BaMoO2F4 transforms into the thermodynamically stable α-BaMoO2F4 in an ambient condition. More detailed kinetic
studies using powder X-ray diffraction indicate that the MoO2F4 octahedra in the kinetic phase, β-BaMoO2F4, rearrange through the constant dissolution/precipitation
process to find a more stable orientation and form the fully ordered
α-BaMoO2F4. Density functional theory
(DFT) calculations suggest that the formation of the thermodynamically
stable α-BaMoO2F4 is driven by the strong
Mo–O π-interactions induced by Ba2+ cations.
The new finding on the understanding of the kinetics of solid-state
reactions suggests a novel way toward an effective discovery of functional
materials with asymmetric structures.