Contribution to the investigation of the ternary Eu–Ag–Al system

The interaction of the components from the Eu–Ag–Al system at 500 °C, in the concentration region of 0–33.3 at.% Eu, was investigated by X-ray diffraction, metallographic and microprobe analysis. Besides the known ternary intermetallic phases (EuAg3+xAl8−x and EuAg4+xAl7−x), six new ones (EuAg6+xAl7−x, Eu2Ag15−xAl2+x, Eu3Ag13−xAl8+x, EuAg1−xAl2+x, EuAg1+xAl2−x and EuAg1−xAl1+x) were revealed to be stable at the temperature investigated. Furthermore, extended solid solutions based on the binary EuAl4, EuAl2, EuAg5 and EuAg2 compounds were also found. The crystal structures of selected phases were studied by means of powder X-ray diffraction techniques and are briefly discussed.