Structure of Ti4AlN3—a layered Mn+1AXn nitride

Abstract Recent high resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron probe X-ray microanalysis show that the compound originally thought to be Ti3Al2N2 is Ti4AlN3. In this paper we report on the crystal structure determination by Rietveld refinement on neutron and X-ray powder diffraction data. Ti4AlN3 crystallizes with a hexagonal unit cell, space group P63/mmc, and with lattice parameters a = 2.9880(2) and c = 23.372(2) A. The stacking sequence is such that every four layers of Ti atoms is separated by a layer of Al atoms. The N atoms occupy octahedral sites between the Ti atoms making up a network of corner shared octahedra. This compound is closely related to other layered, ternary, machinable, hexagonal nitrides and carbides, namely, M2AX and M3AX2, where M is an early transition metal, A is a A-group element and X is either C and/or N.