Rare-earth intermetallics of the W3CoB3 type: Crystal structure of Ce3Ni3Al and reinvestigation of La3Ni3Al, their electronic structures, thermal stability, and physical propertiesстатья
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Дата последнего поиска статьи во внешних источниках: 1 апреля 2026 г.
Аннотация:Intermetallic compounds La3Ni3Al and Ce3Ni3Al were synthesized by arc-melting and subsequent annealing at 550 °C. They crystallize in the W3CoB3 type (SG Cmcm) with orthorhombic unit cells: a = 4.1715(13), b = 10.618(2), c = 13.742(5) Å (La3Ni3Al) and a = 4.1677(7), b = 10.3549(14), c = 13.5212(17) Å (Ce3Ni3Al). The structures of RE3Ni3Al can be presented as a 1D intergrowth of the fragments of RE2Ni2Al and RENi parent structures which run perpendicular to the c-axis and alternate in 1:1 ratio. The melting of the La3Ni3Al phase was detected at 647 °C. Ce3Ni3Al melts with decomposition at 623 °C. DFT calculations and bonding analysis show similarities in the band structure and bonding schemes between RE3Ni3Al and RE2Ni2Al (RE=La, Ce) compounds, with RE-Ni and RE-Al providing almost equal and major contributions to the total covalency. La3Ni3Al shows regular metallic behaviour in its electrical resistivity and specific heat. Its magnetic susceptibility is understandably small. The susceptibility of Ce3Ni3Al is governed by local-moment behaviour of the cerium 4f-electrons near and below room temperature. The electrical resistivity shows this to be a Kondo system. Our estimate of the Kondo temperature scale places this compound in the strongly mixed-valent class of correlated electron systems.