DOE OSTI2020
MgSc is beta-prime cadmium gold structured and crystallizes in the orthorhombic Pmma space group. The structure is three-dimensional. Mg is bonded to four equivalent Mg and eight equivalent Sc atoms to form distorted MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra that share corners with eight equivalent ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra, corners with ten equivalent MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra, edges with six equivalent MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra, edges with twelve equivalent ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra, faces with eight equivalent ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra, and faces with twelve equivalent MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra. There are two shorter (3.33 Å) and two longer (3.36 Å) Mg–Mg bond lengths. There are six shorter (3.15 Å) and two longer (3.17 Å) Mg–Sc bond lengths. Sc is bonded to eight equivalent Mg and four equivalent Sc atoms to form distorted ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra that share corners with eight equivalent MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra, corners with ten equivalent ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra, edges with six equivalent ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra, edges with twelve equivalent MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra, faces with eight equivalent MgMg4Sc8 cuboctahedra, and faces with twelve equivalent ScMg8Sc4 cuboctahedra. There are two shorter (3.34 Å) and two longer (3.36 Å) Sc–Sc bond lengths.