Four new compounds, RbSiBiS
4, RbGeBiS
4, CsSiBiS
4, and CsGeBiS
4, have been synthesized by means of thereactive flux method. The isostructural compounds RbSiBiS
4, RbGeBiS
4, and CsGeBiS
4 crystallize in space group
P2
1/
c of the monoclinic system with four formula units in cells of dimensions at 153 K of
a = 6.4714(4) Å,
b =6.7999(4) Å,
c = 17.9058(11) Å, and
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
= 108.856(1)
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
for RbSiBiS
4,
a = 6.5864(4) Å,
b = 6.8559(4) Å,
c =17.9810(12) Å, and
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
= 109.075(1)
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
for RbGeBiS
4, and
a = 6.5474(4) Å,
b = 6.9282(4) Å,
c = 18.8875(11) Å,and
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
= 110.173(1)
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
for CsGeBiS
4. CsSiBiS
4 crystallizes in a different structure type in space group
P2
1/
c of themonoclinic system with four formula units in a cell of dimensions at 153 K of
a = 9.3351(7) Å,
b = 6.9313(5) Å,
c = 12.8115(10) Å, and
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
= 109.096(1)
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
. The two structure types are closely related and consist of
![](/isubscribe/journals/inocaj/41/i26/eqn/ic020429me10001.gif)
[MBiS
4-](M = Si, Ge) layers separated by bicapped trigonal-prismatically coordinated alkali-metal atoms. In each, the Matom is coordinated to a tetrahedron of four S atoms and the Bi atom is coordinated to seven S atoms comprisingfive close S atoms at the corners of a square pyramid with Bi near the center of the basal plane and the sixth andseventh S atoms further away to complete a distorted monocapped trigonal prism. The optical band gaps of 2.23eV for RbGeBiS
4 and 2.28 eV for CsGeBiS
4 were deduced from their diffuse reflectance spectra. From a bandstructure calculation, the optical absorption for RbGeBiS
4 originates from the
![](/isubscribe/journals/inocaj/41/i26/eqn/ic020429me10002.gif)
[GeBiS
4-] layer. The Ge 4p orbitals,Bi 6p orbitals, and S 3p orbitals are highly hybridized.