Intermetallic Compound Re 2 Ga 9 Ge with Re- and Ge-Embedded Gallium Clusters: Synthesis, Crystal Structure, Chemical Bonding, and Physical Properties

Transition metal-based endohedral cluster intermetallic compounds are interesting electron phases, which frequently exhibit superconductivity with a peculiar interplay between the critical temperature and valence electron count. We present a new Re-based endohedral gallium cluster compound, Re Ga Ge. Its unique crystal structure ( 4 space group, = 8.0452(3) Å, = 6.7132(2) Å) is built by two types of gallium polyhedra: monocapped Archimedean antiprisms centered by rhenium atoms and tetrahedra containing a main-group element inside. The analysis of chemical bonding shows the presence of localized pairwise interactions between the -block elements and the formation of multicenter bonds with the participation of -orbitals of rhenium. In the electronic band structure, the Fermi level is located in a narrow pseudogap indicating the optimum band filling and thus explaining the virtual absence of a homogeneity range. The compound exhibits Pauli paramagnetism and metallic properties with unexpectedly low thermal conductivity. A sharp anomaly observed on the magnetic susceptibility and resistivity curves presumably indicates the electronic phase transition accompanied by charge ordering at the characteristic temperature of * = 271 K in zero magnetic field.