Croat. Chem. Acta 71 (1998) 635-658.

ISSN-0011-1643
CCA-2517

Conference Paper

Scandium Binary and Ternary Alloy Systems and Intermetallic Compounds

Bogdan Ya. Kotur

Department of Inorganic Chemistry, Ivan Franko Lviv State University,
Kyryla & Mefodiya Str. 6, UA-290005 Lviv, Ukraine
(e-mail: kotur@franko.lviv.ua)

Received February 3, 1998;   accepted May 21, 1998

Scandium is the first d-element and a member of the rare earths family. The available data, published until the beginning of 1997, on scandium binary and ternary alloy systems and intermetallic compounds with other elements (with the exception of halogens, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur and nitrogen) have been reviewed. Data about 65 binary and about 200 ternary systems have been generalized. The crystal chemical analysis of 462 investigated intermetallic compounds (out of 554 known to date) belonging to 155 structure types has been carried out. Some regularities and peculiarities of scandium alloy systems and the crystal chemistry of its intermetallics have been found. It has been shown that scandium is the linking element between the rare earths and the d-elements. From the crystal chemical point of view, scandium appears to be closer to 4a elements, especially to Zr and Hf, rather than to the other rare earths. Functional relations between the compositions and structures of compounds and the factors governing these changes have been analysed. It has been shown that the found regularities are useful for investigation of new systems, synthesis of new intermetallic compounds and investigation of their crystal structures.