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The equilibrium phase CuAl2 contains a small excess of Al atoms at all temperatures. From accurate X-ray and density measurements, it was found that the simplest defect structure model consistent with the experimental results is substitutional, Cu1 - xAl2 + x (x = 0.005-0.022 at room temperature). Such a defect type appears to be very unfavourable energetically because of the short Cu-Cu-site bond length of CuAI2 compared to other C16 compounds, and would be in contrast to that of the other known C16 compounds.