Yttrium Yttrium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost a ...

and

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

form several yttrium stannide

intermetallic compound An intermetallic (also called intermetallic compound, intermetallic alloy, ordered intermetallic alloy, long-range-ordered alloy) is a type of metallic alloy that forms an ordered solid-state compound between two or more metallic elements. Inte ...

s. The most tin-rich is YSn₃, followed by YSn₂, Y₁₁Sn₁₀, Y₅Sn₄, and Y₅Sn₃. None survives above , at which point Y₅Sn₃ melts congruently. The enthalpy of dissolution is similar to the stannides of other late

lanthanoid The lanthanide () or lanthanoid () series of chemical elements comprises at least the 14 Metal, metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–70, from lanthanum through ytterbium. In the periodic table, they fill the 4f orbitals. Lutetium ...

s, and the intermetallics' overall enthalpies of formation resemble silicides, not germanides or plumbides. YSn₃ is an electrical superconductor below . It was originally thought to be a

Type I superconductor Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

, but 7 K may actually be the strong-coupling regime, despite the low temperature. The density of electronic states has a

local maximum In mathematical analysis, the maximum and minimum of a function (mathematics), function are, respectively, the greatest and least value taken by the function. Known generically as extremum, they may be defined either within a given Interval (ma ...

at the

Fermi level The Fermi level of a solid-state body is the thermodynamic work required to add one electron to the body. It is a thermodynamic quantity usually denoted by ''μ'' or ''E''F for brevity. The Fermi level does not include the work required to re ...

, composed of tin ''p'' and ''d'' orbitals. The intermetallic is difficult to form, slowly crystallizing from a mixture of Sn and YSn₂ above . This may arise from competing allotropes near room temperature: although its crystal structure is certainly

cubic Cubic may refer to: Science and mathematics * Cube (algebra), "cubic" measurement * Cube, a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex ** Cubic crystal system, a crystal system w ...

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

indicates that both the tricopper auride ( Pmm) or aluminum-titanium alloy (I4/mmm) structures are stable under standard conditions. YSn₂ has unit cell sized 4.39×16.34×4.30 Å. Like DySn₂, it exhibits the zirconium disilicide crystal structure: layers of yttrium rhombohedra encapsulating tin atoms alternate with flat planes of tin. Doping with

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

puckers the planes, and

Mössbauer spectroscopy Mössbauer spectroscopy is a spectroscopic technique based on the Mössbauer effect. This effect, discovered by Rudolf Mössbauer (sometimes written "Moessbauer", German: "Mößbauer") in 1958, consists of the nearly recoil-free emission and a ...

suggests that it removes electron density from the tin ''s'' orbitals. Y₅Sn₃ has the

hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A regular hexagon is d ...

manganese silicide crystal structure, with unit cell 8.88×6.52×0.73 Å.{{Cite journal , last1=Jeitschko , first1=W. , last2=Parthé , first2=E. , date=1965-08-10 , title=Stannides and plumbides of Sc, Y, La and Ce with D88 structure , url=https://journals.iucr.org/paper?a04767 , journal=Acta Crystallographica , language=en , volume=19 , issue=2 , pages=275–277 , doi=10.1107/S0365110X65003213 , issn=0365-110X, url-access=subscription

References

Tin compounds Yttrium compounds Intermetallics Superconductors