Thermodynamic description of the Cr–Ge system

The Cr–Ge binary system was thermodynamically optimized using the CALPHAD method. The liquid phase was described by means of an associate solution model. The BCC terminal solid solution was described by the substitutional solution model. The two-sublattice model was used to describe the non-stoichiometric compounds Cr3Ge, αCr5Ge3 and βCr5Ge3. The Cr11Ge8, CrGe and Cr11Ge19 phases were modeled as stoichiometric compounds. A set of thermodynamic parameters for the Cr–Ge system was obtained via thermodynamic optimization using assessed experimental data. The calculated phase diagram and thermodynamic properties agree well with most of the experimental data.