Abstract
Recently the announcement was made of the remarkable discovery of intermetallic compounds with approximate composition MAl6 (M = Cr, Mn, Fe) that formed crystals or pseudocrystals with icosahedral symmetry, as shown by the shape of the small nodules and by their electron diffraction patterns1. I have found it hard to believe that any single crystal with 5-fold axes could give reasonably sharp diffraction patterns, resembling those given by crystals, and I have not been convinced to the contrary by the theoretical discussions of this possibility that have been published2–7. I therefore set myself the task of predicting how a molten alloy of Mn (or Cr or Fe) and Al might react to sudden cooling. I have discovered that such an alloy on sudden cooling could form a metastable cubic crystal with a large cube edge, about 26.7 Å, with the unit cube containing about 1,120 atoms (possibly a few more), and that these crystals would show ordered multiple growth such that 20 of them, roughly tetrahedral in shape, grow out from a central seed in such a way as to produce an aggregate with approximately icosahedral symmetry.
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Pauling, L. Apparent icosahedral symmetry is due to directed multiple twinning of cubic crystals. Nature 317, 512–514 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/317512a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/317512a0
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