NaIrO3—A pentavalent post-perovskite

Sodium iridium (V) oxide, NaIrO{sub 3}, was synthesized by a high pressure solid state method and recovered to ambient conditions. It is found to be isostructural with CaIrO{sub 3}, the much-studied structural analog of the high-pressure post-perovskite phase of MgSiO{sub 3}. Among the oxide post-perovskites, NaIrO{sub 3} is the first example with a pentavalent cation. The structure consists of layers of corner- and edge-sharing IrO{sub 6} octahedra separated by layers of NaO{sub 8} bicapped trigonal prisms. NaIrO{sub 3} shows no magnetic ordering and resistivity measurements show non-metallic behavior. The crystal structure, electrical and magnetic properties are discussed and compared to known post-perovskites and pentavalent perovskite metal oxides.