Alloys with Bismuth

Abstract

The original diagram determined for this system showed the existence of the compounds RhBi₄, RhBi₂ and RhBi with suggestions from the thermal analysis results that there might be polymorphic changes in RhBi₄ and RhBi₂ [1]. The discovery that RhBi₄ and RhBi₂ were superconducting with critical temperatures of 2.75 and 2.2 K, respectively, stimulated interest in the system [2]. Further investigations particularly on Bi₄Rh showed the value of T_c to be variable and sometimes non-superconducting, resulting in the suggestion that Bi₄Rh existed in three modifications α, β and γ [3]. A following paper proposed that the β form was actually Bi₃Rh with an NiBi₃-type structure [4]. Determinations using an accurate high-temperature X-ray camera showed that Bi₄Rh was stable up to the melting point [5]. A paper covering the whole system followed [6]. This work was largely confirmed in a later paper by [7].