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Article
Rhombohedral Distortion of the Cubic MgCu2-Type Structure in Ca2Pt3Ga and Ca2Pd3Ga
Ames Laboratory Accepted Manuscripts
  • Asa Toombs, Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory
  • Gordon J. Miller, Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory
Publication Date
4-26-2018
Department
Ames Laboratory; Chemistry
Report Number
IS-J 9696
DOI
10.3390/cryst8050186
Journal Title
Crystals
Abstract

Two new fully ordered ternary Laves phase compounds, Ca2Pt3Ga and Ca2Pd3Ga, have been synthesized and characterized by powder and single-crystal X-ray diffraction along with electronic structure calculations. Ca2Pd3Ga was synthesized as a pure phase whereas Ca2Pt3Ga was found as a diphasic product with Ca2Pt2Ga. Electronic structure calculations were performed to try and understand why CaPt2 and CaPd2, which crystalize in the cubic MgCu2-type Laves phase structure, distort to the ordered rhombohedral variant, first observed in the magneto-restricted TbFe2 compound, with the substitution of twenty-five percent of the Pt/Pd with Ga. Electronic stability was investigated by changing the valence electron count from 22e−/f.u. in CaPd2 and CaPt2 (2x) to 37e−/f.u. in Ca2Pd3Ga and Ca2Pt3Ga, which causes the Fermi level to shift to a more energetically favorable location in the DOS. The coloring problem was studied by placing a single Ga atom in each of four tetrahedra of the cubic unit cell of the MgCu2-type structure, with nine symmetrically inequivalent models being investigated. Non-optimized and optimized total energy analyses of structural characteristics, along with electronic properties, will be discussed.

Language
en
Publisher
Iowa State University Digital Repository, Ames IA (United States)
Citation Information
Asa Toombs and Gordon J. Miller. "Rhombohedral Distortion of the Cubic MgCu2-Type Structure in Ca2Pt3Ga and Ca2Pd3Ga" Vol. 8 Iss. 5 (2018) p. 186
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/gordon-miller/124/