To obtain single crystals by solution growth, an exposed primary solidification surface in the appropriate, but often unknown, equilibrium alloy phase diagram is required. Furthermore, an appropriate crucible material is needed, necessary to hold the molten alloy during growth, without being attacked by it. Recently, we have used the comparison of realistic simulations with experimental differe...

In formation of an intermetallic compound from the elementary metals there is usually a contraction in volume. Electron transfer leading to the charge states M(+) and M(-) with increase in valence and decrease in volume explains the more than 2-fold range in contraction for different compounds in the same binary system. In a more thorough analysis, the better packing of atoms of different sizes...

The electric field gradient (efg) at the Nb site in the intermetallic compounds Nb3X (X = Al, In, Si, Ge, Sn) was measured by the Perturbed Angular Correlation (PAC) method using the wellknown gamma-gamma cascade of 133 482 keV inTa from the decay of Hf, substituting approximately 0.1 atom percent of Nb. The PAC results show that Vzz drops by nearly 40% when X changes from Al to In, and by abou...

The synthesis of materials in high-pressure experiments has recently attracted increasing attention, especially since the discovery of record breaking superconducting temperatures in the sulfur-hydrogen and other hydrogen-rich systems. Commonly, the initial precursor in a high pressure experiment contains constituent elements that are known to form compounds at ambient conditions, however the d...

Solidification needs an undercooling to drive the solidification front. If large undercoolings are achieved, metastable solid materials are solidified from the undercooled melt. Containerless processing provides the conditions to achieve large undercoolings since heterogeneous nucleation on container walls is completely avoided. In the present contribution both electromagnetic and electrostatic...

Ab initio generalized valence bond, configuration interaction, and multiconfiguration self-consistent field calculations have been performed to examine the properties of the early-late transition metal bimetallic cluster ZrPt,, as a representative model of Engel-Brewer compounds. Such intermetallic compounds are known to be extremely thermally stable in the bulk form. We find the atomization en...

in this study, the effect of temperature on the diffusion welding of az31 magnesium alloy and 7075 aluminum was discussed. diffusion welding temperature was the most important parameter since all mechanisms are sensitive to temperature in diffusion welding method. intrusive contacts between the two alloys at temperatures of 430, and 440 °c 450 and took 60 min. in all tests constant pressure and...