High pressure / Binary intermetallic compounds / Crystal chemistry Abstract. Effects of high pressure on intermetallic compounds are reviewed with regards to structural stability and phase transitions. Changes of bonding properties and electronic structure are examplified by means of the elemental metals caesium and titanium, the latter forming an internal intermetallic compound at high pressures. After a short systematic overview regarding pressure effects, structural transformations in selected classes of intermetallic compounds like Zintl phases and AlB 2 -type arrangements precedes sections concerning high-pressure synthesis of Laves phases and intermetallic clathrates.

Single crystals of CeAgAs2 have been obtained by chemical transport reactions starting from a pre‐reacted powder sample. The crystal structure was solved using X‐ray diffraction (space group Pmca, No. 57, a = 5.7586(4) Å, b = 5.7852(4) Å, c = 21.066(3) Å, Z = 8) and refined to a residual of R(F) = 0.029 for 46 refined parameters and 1020 reflections. The structure of CeAgAs2 represents a new distorted and ordered variant of the HfCuSi2 type. The characteristic feature of this structure are infinite cis‐trans chains of As atoms with As—As distances of 2.563(1) Å and 2.601(1) Å. CeAgAs2 is paramagnetic (μeff = 2.37 μB, θ = —10.5(2) K), with antiferromagnetic ordering at 5.5(2) K and exhibits a metamagnetic transition starting at 4.6 kOe and T = 1.8 K.

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