Redetermination of the crystal structure of tetralithium octafluoridozirconate(IV), Li4ZrF8, from single-crystal X-ray data

Presented herein is the crystal-structure redetermination of Li4ZrF8 from single-crystal X-ray data. Alkali zirconium fluorides are important in nuclear-relevant technologies, and zirconium is commonly employed as an analogue for tetravalent f-block elements. The previous structure report of this species is based on powder X-ray data [Dugat et al. (1995). J. Solid State Chem. 120, 187–196] but there has never been a refined structure model from single-crystal data. The octafluoridozirconate moieties are held together by electrostatic attraction to lithium ions without sharing of fluoride sites between zirconium(IV) ions.