Minerals with antiperovskite structure: a review

Antiperovskites or inverse perovskites are inorganic compounds with a perovskite structure but with cations replaced by anions and vice versa. It is shown that there exists a number of minerals whose structures can be regarded as based upon antiperovskite units composed of face-and corner-sharing octahedra. The structures of sulphohalite, galeite, schairerite, kogarkoite, nacaphite, arctite, polyphite, hatrurite and related compounds are considered. The 3 C , 2 H , 5 H , 7 H , 9 R and 15 R antiperovskite polytypes are described. In some cases, antiperovskite modules are intercalated with intermediate ions and complexes.