Abstract
Four crystal structures of dehydrated Ag(I) and Tl(I) exchanged zeolite A, $Ag_{12-x}Tl_x$-A, x = 2, 3, 4, and 5, have been determined by single-crystal x-ray diffraction techniques. Their structures were solved and refined in the cubic space group Pm3m at $21(1)^{\circ}C$. All crystals were ion exchanged in flowing streams of mixed $AgNO_3\;and\;TlNO_3$ aqueous solution, followed by dehydration at $350^{\circ}C$ and $2{\times}10^{-6}$ Torr for 2 days. In all of these structures, one-sixth of the sodalite units contain octahedral hexasilver clusters at their centers and eight $Ag^+$ ions are found on threefold axes, each nearly at the center of a 6-oxygen ring. The hexasilver cluster is stabilized by coordination to eight $Ag^+$ ions. The Ag-Ag distance in the cluster, ca. 2.92 ${\AA}$, is near the 2.89 ${\AA}$ bond length in silver metal. The remaining five-sixths of the sodalite units are empty of silver species. The first three $Tl^+$ ions per unit cell preferentially associate with 8-oxygen rings, and additional $Tl^+$ ions, if present, are found on threefold axes in the large cavity.