Solvent Flux Growth of Manganese Monosilicide

COPPER-SOLVENT FLUX GROWTH OF MANGANESE MONOSILICIDE 

A suitable metal solvent should provide high solubility for the reactants. In addition, it should either not form compounds with the reactants or only those with heats of formation that are low with respect to the desired silicide. Finally, the solvent should have a relatively low melting point and vapor pressure, and separate easily from the product silicide. 

Copper metal is a good flux for manganese silicides, since both manganese and silicon are highly soluble in copper. Manganese silicides are the most stable phases in the Cu—Mn—Si system at 

Several octahedral crystals were ground to powder and studied by the Guinier-Hagg technique (Cu radiation). All diffraction lines could be indexed on the basis of a cubic cell with a = 4.560 0.001 A., which is within experimental error of that reported previously for MnSi, 4.558 0.001 A.2 In view of the similarity of the cell constants of the ground crystals to those of previous preparations, significant replacement of manganese by copper is not indicated. This was checked on a few crystals by emission spectrographic analysis which indicated an upper limit of ca. 1% of copper. 

It should be noted that the starting atomic ratio of manganese to silicon is not 1 1, but 1 1.96. An excess of silicon is necessary, 

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