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We report the formation of a new stable quasicrystal approximant in the Ce–Au–Sn system. The crystalline structure of the Ce15Au65Sn20 compound is investigated by x-ray diffraction and is found to be of similar structure type to the Zn17Sc3 1/1 approximant. Large clusters with icosahedral symmetry are located at the node of the body-centred cubic (bcc) unit cell (a = 1.5190 nm) containing 161 atoms. We have used transmission electron microscopy to emphasize the relationship of this new compound with the icosahedral space group. The valence band has been investigated by photoemission spectroscopy and shows an indication of Van Hove singularities in the density of states, characteristic of quasicrystalline and related approximant phases. We expect similar 1/1 approximant and possibly icosahedral phases to be discovered in the new RE–Au–Sn systems (where RE is rare earth). We also found a hexagonal phase with a large unit cell possessing local icosahedral order, co-existing as a minority phase.

Additive manufacturing processes allow freeform fabrication of the physical representation of a three-dimensional computer-aided design (CAD) data model. This area has been expanding rapidly over the last 20 years. It includes several techniques such as selective laser sintering and stereolithography. The range of materials used today is quite restricted while there is a real demand for manufacturing lighter functional parts or parts with improved functional properties. In this article, we summarize recent work performed in this field, introducing new composite materials containing complex metallic alloys. These are mainly Al-based quasicrystalline alloys whose properties differ from those of conventional alloys. The use of these materials allows us to produce light-weight parts consisting of either metal–matrix composites or of polymer–matrix composites with improved properties. Functional parts using these alloys are now commercialized.

A B S T R A C TThis original work proposes to investigate the transposition of crystallography rules to cubic lattice architectured materials to generate new 3D porous structures. The application of symmetry operations provides a complete and convenient way to configure the lattice architecture with only two parameters. New lattice structures were created by slipping from the conventional Bravais lattice toward non-compact complex structures. The resulting stiffness of the porous materials was thoroughly evaluated for all the combinations of architecture parameters. This exhaustive study revealed attractive structures having high specific stiffness, up to twice as large as the usual octet-truss for a given relative density. It results in a relationship between effective Young modulus and relative density for any lattice structure. It also revealed the opportunity to generate auxetic structures at will, with a controlled Poisson ratio. The collection of the elastic properties for all the cubic structures into 3D maps provides a convenient tool for lattice materials design, for research, and for mechanical engineering. The resulting mechanical properties are highly variable according to architecture, and can be easily tailored for specific applications using the simple yet powerful formalism developed in this work.

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Quasicrystals have been identified as alloys possessing unusually low surface energy. This results in poor adhesion properties of quasicrystalline coatings when deposited on metallic substrates, hindering the development of these new materials for technological applications. Here we investigate the possible use of complex Al-Cu metallic phases as interface layers to accommodate the structural and electronic mismatch between a quasicrystalline coating and a metallic substrate and improve adhesion. First, we show that all stable low-temperature phases of the Al-Cu system can be grown as thin films using DC magnetron sputtering. Among the various possible phases, we select the g-brass g-Al 4 Cu 9 as a promising candidate for the interface layer. Then the g-Al 4 Cu 9 phase is grown on the fivefold surface of an icosahedral (i-) Al-Pd-Mn quasicrystal. The interface is investigated by transmission electron microscopy and shows a clear texturing of the film. The grains exhibit rotational epitaxy with the substrate. We find that the interface is mainly composed of a b-phase of unknown chemical composition and sometimes exhibits g grains in direct contact with the quasicrystalline substrate. Occasionally, we observe a fourth phase at the b/g interface, identified as b 1 , possessing a lattice parameter a b1 equal to 2a b and 2/3a g .