Eutectoid flux growth of single crystal Ln117Ni 54-ySn112-z

Single crystals of Ln117Ni57- ySn112-z (Ln = Gd--Dy) have been grown via the eutectoid flux growth method and characterized using single crystal X-ray diffraction. The series of compounds crystallizes in the Dy117Co57Sn112--type structure, which adopts a face-centered cubic unit cell with the space group Fm3m. The Gd117Ni 53.3(3)Sn107.1(1) lattice parameter is 30.070(4) A, cell dimensions decreases as a function of lanthanides to 29.862(5) and 29.823(4) A for Tb117Ni51.2(2)Sn103.6(1) and Dy 117Ni52.3(2)Sn112, respectively. To the best of our knowledge these are the first nickel containing compounds to be synthesized in the Dy117Co57Sn112--type structure. Structural disorder surrounding the 4b (1/2, 1/2, 1/2) position is found to vary within the synthesized series and is linked to the presence of an additional atomic position Ni9' (48i (1/2, x, x) x = 0.4268(4)) not seen in previous analogues. Magnetic susceptibility data are examined and shown to follow the Curie-Weiss law for each analogue and suggest the presences of ferromagnetic interactions in each compound.