Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Molten-Salt Synthesis of Complex Metal Oxide Nanoparticles
Published on: October 27, 2018
Li8Cu12+xAl6-x (x = 1.16): a new structure type related to Laves phases
Volodymyr Pavlyuk1, Grygoriy Dmytriv, Ivan Tarasiuk
1Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Ivan Franko Lviv National University, Kyryla i Mefodiya Street 6, 79005 Lviv, Ukraine.
Abstract:
The new ternary lithium copper aluminide Li(8)Cu(12+x)Al(6-x) (x = 1.16) crystallizes in the P6(3)/mmc space group with six independent atom positions of site symmetries 3m. (Al/Cu mixture), 6m2 (Li atoms), 3m. (Al/Cu mixture and Li atoms) and .m. (Cu atoms). The compound is a derivative of the K(7)Cs(6) binary structure type and is related to the binary MgZn(2) Laves phase and the LiCuAl(2), MgCu(1.07)Al(0.93) and Mg(Cu(1-x)Al(x))(2) (x = 0.465) ternary Laves phases. The coordination polyhedra of the atoms in this structure are icosahedra (Cu atoms), slightly distorted icosahedra and bicapped hexagonal antiprisms (Al/Cu statistical mixture), and Frank-Kasper and distorted Frank-Kasper polyhedra (Li atoms). All interatomic distances indicate metallic type bonding.
Related Concept Videos
Ionic Crystal Structures
Most monatomic ions behave as charged spheres, and their attraction for ions of opposite charge is the same in every direction. Consequently, stable structures for ionic compounds result (1) when ions of one charge are surrounded by as many ions as possible of the opposite...
Metallic Solids
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability. Many...
Structures of Solids
Lattice Centering and Coordination Number
Types of Unit Cells
Imagine taking a large number of identical...
Lattice Energies of Ionic Crystals
Unit Cells

