Polar Intermetallic Compounds With Tetrel Elements

Many polar intermetallic compounds have intriguing properties and appear as metals and even superconductors as well as semiconductors which allow also molecular description of the structures (Zintl phases). The combination of systematic investigations on the stability of binary and ternary phases, structural charac¬terization of the new compounds, measurements of physical properties, and analysis of the chemical bond gives new insights in this relationship. [selected publications]