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Abstract:
A new member of the RET2Al10 family was synthesized and its crystal structure was determined from single crystal X-ray diffraction. The first aluminide with rhodium adopts a new structure type of 1:2:10 stoichiometry. CeRh2Al10 crystallizes in the tetragonal space group I4(1)/amd with cell parameters a = 8.9284(11) angstrom and c = 21.769(3) angstrom and is a substitution variant of CePd3Al9 compound. The mutual arrangement of Rh and Al neighbors within the 20-vertex Ce polyhedron differs in comparison with that of the CeRu2Al10 structure. This leads to the different packing of Ce polyhedra in the unit cell. In CeRh2Al10, zig-zag chains of the shortest Ce-Ce contacts extend in the two mutually perpendicular directions - along the a-axis and along the b-axis. In contrast, in CeRu2Al10, zig-zag chains of the shortest Ce-Ce contacts run in one direction - along the c-axis. We illustrate using key physical properties how the variation in crystal structure produces physical properties in CeRh2Al10 that differ strikingly from the situation in CeRu2Al10. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.