Structural Characterization of Intermetallic Compounds by 27Al Solid State NMR Spectroscopy

CONSPECTUS: Intermetallic compounds are of broad interest for solid state chemists, condensed matter physicists, and material scientists due to their intriguing crystal chemistry, their physical properties, and their potential applications, ranging from lab curiosities to everyday objects. To characterize and understand the properties of new compounds and novel materials, the availability of structural information, particularly single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, is a mandatory prerequisite. Especially when it comes to the formation of compounds with deficient or mixed site occupancies, superstructures, or representatives crystallizing in other, thus far unknown structure types, a complementary method for structural analysis is of great value. Solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy has been a valuable tool in many areas of chemistry, being an element-selective, site-specific, and inherently quantitative tool for detailed structural characterization. Magic-angle spinning conditions eliminate or reduce the effect of anisotropic interactions in the solid state, producing high-resolution spectra. Until recently, Al-27 NMR studies of intermetallic aluminum compounds have been relatively sparse and mostly limited to binary systems. In this Account, we will summarize the current state of the art of high-resolution Al-27 NMR in intermetallic compounds focusing on recent research efforts in our laboratories and the interpretation of NMR parameters in terms of the structural details of the compounds investigated. Besides theoretical aspects of Al-27 NMR spectroscopy, short paragraphs on experimental details and the crystal chemistry of the discussed compounds are given. In the main part of this Account, we focus on three key aspects: (i) crystal structure validation, (ii) structural disorder and mixed site occupancies, and (iii) the electronic structure, all of which can be investigated by spectroscopic means. For the first part, we have chosen the ternary equiatomic compounds CaAuAl (TiNiSi type), BaAuAl (LaIrSi type), and Ba3Pt4Al4 (own type). Structural disorder and mixed site occupancies have been probed in the ScTAl series (T = Cr, Ru, Ag, Re) crystallizing in the TiNiSi, HfRhSn, and MgZn2-type structures. Also Na2Au3Al and the Heusler compounds, Sc(T0.5T0.5')(2)Al (T = T' = Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Au), have been used for structure validation purposes, based on the number and signal area ratios of the resonances observed and on the comparison between experimental and theoretically calculated nuclear electric quadrupolar interaction parameters. Electronic structure information available from Al-27 magnetic shielding will be discussed based on experimental data obtained for the RET5Al2 series (RE = Y, Lu; T = Pd, Pt), the extended RE10TAl3 series (RE = Y, Lu; T = Fe, Ru, Os, Co, Rh, Ir, Ni, Pd, Pt), and the ordered Hensler compounds ScT2Al (T = Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Au).