MgHo2 crystallizes in the orthorhombic Cmcm space group. Mg(1) is bonded in a distorted body-centered cubic geometry to two equivalent Ho(2) and six equivalent Ho(1) atoms. There are two inequivalent Ho sites. In the first Ho site, Ho(1) is bonded in a 6-coordinate geometry to six equivalent Mg(1) and four equivalent Ho(2) atoms. In the second Ho site, Ho(2) is bonded to two equivalent Mg(1), four equivalent Ho(1), and six equivalent Ho(2) atoms to form a mixture of distorted face, corner, and edge-sharing HoHo10Mg2 cuboctahedra.
MgHo2 crystallizes in the orthorhombic Cmcm space group. Mg(1) is bonded in a distorted body-centered cubic geometry to two equivalent Ho(2) and six equivalent Ho(1) atoms. Both Mg(1)-Ho(2) bond lengths are 3.30 Å. There are two shorter (3.26 Å) and four longer (3.30 Å) Mg(1)-Ho(1) bond lengths. There are two inequivalent Ho sites. In the first Ho site, Ho(1) is bonded in a 6-coordinate geometry to six equivalent Mg(1) and four equivalent Ho(2) atoms. There are two shorter (3.56 Å) and two longer (3.60 Å) Ho(1)-Ho(2) bond lengths. In the second Ho site, Ho(2) is bonded to two equivalent Mg(1), four equivalent Ho(1), and six equivalent Ho(2) atoms to form a mixture of distorted face, corner, and edge-sharing HoHo10Mg2 cuboctahedra. There are four shorter (3.36 Å) and two longer (3.67 Å) Ho(2)-Ho(2) bond lengths.