Cobalt-Induced Phase Transformation of Ni₃Ga₄ Generates Chiral Intermetallic Co₃Ni₃Ga₈

Abstract

The scientific community has found immense difficulty to focus on the generation of chiral intermetallics compared to the chiral molecular structure, probably due to the technical difficulty in producing them as no general controlled protocol is available. Herein, using a conventional metal flux technique, we have discovered a new ternary intermetallic Co3Ni3Ga8, substituting Co at the Ni sublattice in a highly symmetric Ni3Ga4 (Ia3̅d). Co3Ni3Ga8 crystallizes in the I4132 space group, a Sohncke type, and can host the chiral structure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a ternary intermetallic crystallizing in this space group. The chiral structure of Co3Ni3Ga8 is comprehensively mapped by various techniques such as single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), synchrotron powder XRD, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and theoretically studied using density functional theory. The discovery of this chiral compound can inspire the researchers to design hidden ternary chiral intermetallics to study the exotic electrical and magnetic properties.

Metal Deficiency Tailored by the 18-Electron Rule Stabilizes Metal-Based Inorganic Compounds

“…However, in most cases, intermetallics show a mixed bonding nature and the mixture of all three mechanisms to form the pseudogap. The position of E f (Fermi energy) with respect to the pseudogap is a guiding tool for the stability of intermetallics. ,, When E f lies on the pseudogap, it indicates the formation of a closed-shell configuration and leads to a stable structure. In contrast, E f lying on the higher side of the pseudogap indicates that the antibonding states are populated, leading to an unstable crystal structure.…”

Nanoparticle manipulation based on chiral plasmon effects

“…As a purely geometric concept, its exploration in materials holds significant importance across various fields. [1][2][3][4][5] In the realm of optics, circularly polarized light presents chirality through its electromagnetic field distribution, which can be divided into left-and right-handed polarization according to its polarization form. 5 The interaction between chiral light and chiral structures leads to distinctive chiral optical interactions.…”