The understanding of structure and bonding in intermetallic
phases
still lags behind that of molecular compounds. For that reason, exploring
intermetallic phases and identifying structural patterns and relationships
are particularly important for closing this knowledge gap. In particular,
here we report on the addition of increasing amounts of platinum to
∼2:1 mixtures of tin and neodymium, which yields eight ternary
Pt/Sn/Nd compounds, four of which have not been reported before. Interestingly,
except for PtSnNd (1), all observed ternary phases of
the system can be derived from the binary compounds Sn2Nd and Sn5Nd2by adding Pt to the composition(s),
as they lie on or close to two lines: Sn2Nd–Pt (Pt0.21(1)Sn2Nd (2), PtSn2Nd
(3), Pt1.33Sn2Nd (4), Pt2–xSn2+xNd (x= 0.27(3),5), and Pt3Sn2Nd (6)) or Sn5Nd2–Pt (Pt1.5Sn5–xNd2(x= 0.16(2),7) and Pt3Sn5Nd2–x(x= 0.161(8),8)). While the
introduction of increasing amounts of Pt to the binaries Sn2Nd and Sn5Nd2leads to stepwise changes in
the coordination environment of Nd, Pt preserves its coordination
over the entire system in the form of interpenetrating bipyramidal
{PtSn5Nd5} clusters.