The RE M E Phases : I. An Overview of Their Structural Variety

✍ Scribed by Mihaela D. Bojin; Roald Hoffmann

• Book ID: 102858034
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: German
• Weight: 688 KB
• Volume: 86
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0018-019X
• DOI: 10.1002/hlca.200390140

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

There are more than 2000 compounds with RE/M/E 1 : 1 : 1 stoichiometry, where RE is a rare earth, actinide, or from groups 1–4, E is a late transition metal from groups 8–12, and E belongs to groups 13–15. In the first paper of a series, we describe the primary structural characteristics of this large class of compounds, focusing on the geometries and bonding in the [ME]^n−^ anionic sublattices. We start with a detailed description of the EuAuSn lattice, by emphasizing its essential building blocks and the symmetry operations connecting them, in order to set up a way of describing systematically the geometric features of other RE M E frameworks. Nearly all these phases have eclipsed hexagonal layered arrangements (with only ME bonds within these slabs) in the ME sublattice. In most cases, stacking the puckered layers in the third dimension gives rise to ME, MM, or EE bonds, alternating in certain patterns. We point to several interesting sets of RE M E compounds, of like structure, but whose electron counts vary significantly. The structures of nonlayered networks and their most‐common electron counts are also introduced.