Mg2SnN2 crystallizes in the monoclinic C2 space group. There are two inequivalent Mg sites. In the first Mg site, Mg(1) is bonded in a 4-coordinate geometry to two equivalent N(2) and three equivalent N(1) atoms. In the second Mg site, Mg(2) is bonded to two equivalent N(1) and two equivalent N(2) atoms to form a mixture of distorted corner and edge-sharing MgN4 trigonal pyramids. Sn(1) is bonded in a T-shaped geometry to one N(1) and two equivalent N(2) atoms. There are two inequivalent N sites. In the first N site, N(1) is bonded to two equivalent Mg(2), three equivalent Mg(1), and one Sn(1) atom to form NMg5Sn octahedra that share corners with two equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra, corners with two equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra, edges with three equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra, and edges with five equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra. The corner-sharing octahedral tilt angles range from 10-17°. In the second N site, N(2) is bonded to two equivalent Mg(1), two equivalent Mg(2), and two equivalent Sn(1) atoms to form distorted NMg4Sn2 octahedra that share corners with two equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra, corners with two equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra, edges with two equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra, and edges with five equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra. The corner-sharing octahedral tilt angles range from 10-26°.
Mg2SnN2 crystallizes in the monoclinic C2 space group. There are two inequivalent Mg sites. In the first Mg site, Mg(1) is bonded in a 4-coordinate geometry to two equivalent N(2) and three equivalent N(1) atoms. There is one shorter (2.21 Å) and one longer (2.72 Å) Mg(1)-N(2) bond length. There are a spread of Mg(1)-N(1) bond distances ranging from 2.13-2.16 Å. In the second Mg site, Mg(2) is bonded to two equivalent N(1) and two equivalent N(2) atoms to form a mixture of distorted corner and edge-sharing MgN4 trigonal pyramids. There is one shorter (2.10 Å) and one longer (2.21 Å) Mg(2)-N(1) bond length. There is one shorter (2.17 Å) and one longer (2.18 Å) Mg(2)-N(2) bond length. Sn(1) is bonded in a T-shaped geometry to one N(1) and two equivalent N(2) atoms. The Sn(1)-N(1) bond length is 2.33 Å. There is one shorter (2.20 Å) and one longer (2.35 Å) Sn(1)-N(2) bond length. There are two inequivalent N sites. In the first N site, N(1) is bonded to two equivalent Mg(2), three equivalent Mg(1), and one Sn(1) atom to form NMg5Sn octahedra that share corners with two equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra, corners with two equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra, edges with three equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra, and edges with five equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra. The corner-sharing octahedral tilt angles range from 10-17°. In the second N site, N(2) is bonded to two equivalent Mg(1), two equivalent Mg(2), and two equivalent Sn(1) atoms to form distorted NMg4Sn2 octahedra that share corners with two equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra, corners with two equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra, edges with two equivalent N(2)Mg4Sn2 octahedra, and edges with five equivalent N(1)Mg5Sn octahedra. The corner-sharing octahedral tilt angles range from 10-26°.