Mg2La crystallizes in the monoclinic C2/m space group. There are two inequivalent Mg sites. In the first Mg site, Mg(1) is bonded in a 12-coordinate geometry to four equivalent Mg(1), five equivalent Mg(2), and three equivalent La(1) atoms. In the second Mg site, Mg(2) is bonded in a 12-coordinate geometry to three equivalent Mg(2), five equivalent Mg(1), and four equivalent La(1) atoms. La(1) is bonded to three equivalent Mg(1), four equivalent Mg(2), and five equivalent La(1) atoms to form a mixture of corner, edge, and face-sharing LaLa5Mg7 cuboctahedra.
Mg2La crystallizes in the monoclinic C2/m space group. There are two inequivalent Mg sites. In the first Mg site, Mg(1) is bonded in a 12-coordinate geometry to four equivalent Mg(1), five equivalent Mg(2), and three equivalent La(1) atoms. There are two shorter (3.23 Å) and two longer (3.43 Å) Mg(1)-Mg(1) bond lengths. There are a spread of Mg(1)-Mg(2) bond distances ranging from 3.21-3.55 Å. There are two shorter (3.48 Å) and one longer (3.65 Å) Mg(1)-La(1) bond length. In the second Mg site, Mg(2) is bonded in a 12-coordinate geometry to three equivalent Mg(2), five equivalent Mg(1), and four equivalent La(1) atoms. There is one shorter (3.10 Å) and two longer (3.43 Å) Mg(2)-Mg(2) bond lengths. There are two shorter (3.43 Å) and two longer (3.58 Å) Mg(2)-La(1) bond lengths. La(1) is bonded to three equivalent Mg(1), four equivalent Mg(2), and five equivalent La(1) atoms to form a mixture of corner, edge, and face-sharing LaLa5Mg7 cuboctahedra. There are a spread of La(1)-La(1) bond distances ranging from 3.39-3.45 Å.