Physical properties of polycrystalline Dy2PdGe6 and La2PdGe6

A new glance on R2MGe6(R = rare earth metal, M = another metal) compounds. An experimental and theoretical study of R2PdGe6germanides

“…The In-flux synthetic route used in this study gave origin to mS36-La 2 AlGe 6 twinned crystals of La 2 PdGe 6 and Pr 2 PdGe 6 , whereas Yb 2 PdGe 6 crystals grown from the same metal solvent are orthorhombic oS72. These results are coherent with recent structural studies on 2 : 1 : 6 germanides assigning to them the oS72 7,9,14,15 or the mS36 model 17 instead of the previously proposed oS18.…”

“…A variety of physical properties, including electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, specific heat and thermoelectric power, have already been measured on several R 2 MGe 6 representative samples, mostly with transition elements, such as Co, Ni, Pd, Pt and Cu, as M components. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Many of the investigated compounds exhibit an antiferromagnetic ordering below ∼30 K; 3,4,8 for some Yb 2 MGe 6 phases a behaviour characteristic of intermediate valence systems has been reported. 5,9,10 Despite the great amount of experimental work, controversial data exist both on the interpretation of the physical/ magnetic properties and on the crystal structures of the R 2 MGe 6 † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: X-ray crystallographic files in CIF format; back scattered electron images of alloy surfaces; summary of attempts to synthesize the La 2 PdGe 6 compound; calculated X-ray powder patterns; interatomic distances obtained by single crystal X-ray analysis.…”