A new phase MgNi3 synthesized by mechanical alloying

There are only two kinds of intermetallics Mg2Ni and MgNi2 formed in Mg–Ni binary alloy system as known now. However, X-ray diffraction results indicate a new phase MgNi3 with the same crystal lattice as AuCu3 phase was formed by mechanical alloying in Mg–50 at% Ni mixture powders milled for 40 h. MgNi3 phase has the cubic crystal lattice and the crystal constant is 0.3717 nm.