A New Family of Ternary Intermetallic Compounds with Dualistic Atomic Ordering – The ZIP Phases

A new family of nanostructured ternary intermetallic compounds - named the ZIP phases - is introduced in this work. The ZIP phases exhibit dualistic atomic ordering, i.e., they form two structural variants: one with the fcc diamond cubic structure (space group Fd <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics><mml:mover><mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo></mml:mover> <mml:annotation>$\bar 3$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> m) and one with the hexagonal structure (space group P6<sub>3</sub>/mmc). They are also characterized by metallic behavior, ionic bonding, and atomic zigzagging. Powder metallurgical routes involving pressure-assisted densification are adopted to demonstrate ZIP phase synthesis in the Nb-Si-Ni, Nb-Si-Co, Ta-Si-Ni, V-Si-Ni, and Nb-Si-Fe ternary systems. Crucially, reactive hot pressing is capable of producing high-purity ZIP phase materials after the judicious, elemental system-specific optimization of the processing route. Synthesis of phase-pure materials - demonstrated in the Nb-Si-Ni ternary system by the synthesis of quasi phase-pure Nb<sub>3</sub>SiNi<sub>2</sub> and Ni<sub>3</sub>SiNb<sub>2</sub> ZIP phase-based materials - is a steppingstone to the prospective exploitation of the ZIP phases. Characterization of Nb<sub>3</sub>SiNi<sub>2</sub> and Ni<sub>3</sub>SiNb<sub>2</sub> involves crystal structure determination, spatially resolved chemical analysis, and determination of select thermal, electrical, magnetic, mechanical, and physical properties. Density functional theory is used to assess the stability of Nb<sub>3</sub>SiNi<sub>2</sub> & Ni<sub>3</sub>SiNb<sub>2</sub> and derivative binary compounds at different temperatures, also exploring the exfoliation of these two ZIP phases along specific surfaces to produce 2D derivatives.

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Journal
Advanced Materials
Published
2025-09-10
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202308168
Primary Topic
MXene and MAX Phase Materials
Type
article
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article

A New Family of Ternary Intermetallic Compounds with Dualistic Atomic Ordering – The ZIP Phases

Marcus Hans, Stavros‐Richard G. Christopoulos, Saryu Fensin, Franziska Schmidt et al.
Advanced Materials
MXene and MAX Phase Materials
article

A New Family of Ternary Intermetallic Compounds with Dualistic Atomic Ordering – The ZIP Phases

Marcus Hans, Stavros‐Richard G. Christopoulos, Saryu Fensin, Franziska Schmidt, James A. Valdez, Jochen M. Schneider, Anna Eyal, Matheus A. Tunes, Caitlin Kohnert, Asaf Pesach, Ganesh Kumar Nayak, Cláudio Geraldo Schön, Tarik A. Saleh, Nick Goossens, S.A. Maloy, Marco Molinari, Amit Keren, S. Dubois, Shuigen Huang, Konstantina Lambrinou, Sean M. Drewry, Matthew M. Schneider, Per O. Å. Persson, Jef Vleugels, Omri Tabo
article en

Abstract

A new family of nanostructured ternary intermetallic compounds - named the ZIP phases - is introduced in this work. The ZIP phases exhibit dualistic atomic ordering, i.e., they form two structural variants: one with the fcc diamond cubic structure (space group Fd <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:semantics><mml:mover><mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo></mml:mover> <mml:annotation>$\bar 3$</mml:annotation></mml:semantics> </mml:math> m) and one with the hexagonal structure (space group P6<sub>3</sub>/mmc). They are also characterized by metallic behavior, ionic bonding, and atomic zigzagging. Powder metallurgical routes involving pressure-assisted densification are adopted to demonstrate ZIP phase synthesis in the Nb-Si-Ni, Nb-Si-Co, Ta-Si-Ni, V-Si-Ni, and Nb-Si-Fe ternary systems. Crucially, reactive hot pressing is capable of producing high-purity ZIP phase materials after the judicious, elemental system-specific optimization of the processing route. Synthesis of phase-pure materials - demonstrated in the Nb-Si-Ni ternary system by the synthesis of quasi phase-pure Nb<sub>3</sub>SiNi<sub>2</sub> and Ni<sub>3</sub>SiNb<sub>2</sub> ZIP phase-based materials - is a steppingstone to the prospective exploitation of the ZIP phases. Characterization of Nb<sub>3</sub>SiNi<sub>2</sub> and Ni<sub>3</sub>SiNb<sub>2</sub> involves crystal structure determination, spatially resolved chemical analysis, and determination of select thermal, electrical, magnetic, mechanical, and physical properties. Density functional theory is used to assess the stability of Nb<sub>3</sub>SiNi<sub>2</sub> & Ni<sub>3</sub>SiNb<sub>2</sub> and derivative binary compounds at different temperatures, also exploring the exfoliation of these two ZIP phases along specific surfaces to produce 2D derivatives.

Advanced MaterialsVol. 38(8)
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (IL), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), University of Huddersfield (GB), Los Alamos National Laboratory (US), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US), Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (IL), Universidade de São Paulo (BR), Montanuniversität Leoben (AT), Institut Pprime (FR), Italian Institute of Technology (IT), The Technological College of Beer Sheva (IL), Universidade Politecnica (MZ), Thinfilm (Sweden) (SE), Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (CH), University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US), RWTH Aachen University (DE), University of California, Berkeley (US), KU Leuven (BE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 82%
MXene and MAX Phase Materials
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