Alloying behavior of zinc with rare earth metals: The Dy–Gd–Zn system

The isothermal section at 400 1C of the Dy–Gd–Zn system was studied, and the vertical sections at the Dy/Gd ratio¼1 was investigated. The experimental techniques used were Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA-EDX). No ternary compounds were found in the system. As regard to the intermetallic phases, the (Dy,Gd) Zn, (Dy,Gd)Zn2, (Dy,Gd)Zn3, (Dy,Gd)3Zn11, (Dy,Gd)13Zn58, (Dy,Gd)2Zn17 and (Dy,Gd)Zn12 solid solutions form in the full field of composition, while the Gd3Zn22 compound did not show dysprosium dissolution.