The title compound, penta-barium tetra-indium hexa-anti-mony, was synthesized by an indium-flux reaction and its structure features layers composed of edge-sharing In2Sb6 units. The voids between the In4Sb6 layers are filled by Ba(2+) cations, which are all surrounded by six Sb atoms and form bicapped octa-hedral or triangular prismatic coordination geometries. There are five barium ions in the asymmetric unit: one has no imposed crystallographic symmetry, two lie on mirror planes and two have mm2 point symmetry. The two In atoms and four Sb atoms in the asymmetric unit all lie on general crystallographic positions.
Keywords: In—In interconnections; antimony; barium; crystal structure; indium.