Some crystal chemical aspects of A3B(β-W) type compounds

Abstract All the known A 3 B compounds with the A15(β-W) type structure have been compiled. The compilation shows that the formation of the A 3 B compounds to be strongly dependent on atomic orbitals of both the A and B elements. Specifically A elements come exclusively from the transition atoms of 4-A 5-A and 6-A groups, whereas B elements come exclusively from 8-A, 9-A, 10-A groups of transition atoms as well as from 1-B, 2-B, 3-B, 4-B and 5-B groups of nontransition atoms. Roughly, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the population (therefore the stability) of the A 3 B compounds and their superconducting critical temperature; the more stable is the compound, the higher is the critical temperature.