Cubic hafnium carbide

Reaction with methane at 2,100°C produces hafnium carbide, a dark-gray, brittle solid, which is not a true stoichiometric compound. It probably is a homogeneous mixture in which carbon impregnates interstitial sites in the face-centered cubic lattice of hafnium. 

The nitrides and carbides of titanium and zirconium and the carbide of hafnium are extremely hard substances, resembling metals both in appearance and in electrical conductivity. Their formulae approach AxBh but some departure from stoichiometry is possible. Each of these refractory substances has the sodium chloride structure, described alternately (p. 190) as cubic close-packed arrays of metal atoms with the small nonmetal atoms in the octahedral holes. Note, however, that the parent metals themselves do not have cubic close-packed structures. Thus, the older view of such nitrides and carbides as lattices of the parent metals that are expanded to accommodate nitrogen or carbon atoms in the holes (interstices) is not admissible. The nature of the bonding in such refractory nitrides and carbides appears to be linked to the nature of bonding in metals in general, an important and interesting topic, but best pursued in more advanced works. 

The transition metal carbides and nitrides have often been called interstitial compounds [70] however, this is somewhat misleading. The small boron, carbon, or nitrogen atoms certainly occupy octahedral or trigonal prismatic voids of the metal sublattice, but the arrangement of the metal atoms themselves is different from that of the element. In the monocarbides the transition metal atoms show cubic close packing. However, titanium, zirconium, and hafnium are packed hexagonally and vanadium, niobium, and tantalum are body centered cubic [1]. Thus, these monocarbides are inorganic compounds with their individual crystal structures and they should not be considered as an interstitial compound of a transition metal host lattice. 

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