Diversity in Crystal Structure and Physical Properties of RETX (RE - Rare Earth, T - Transition Metal, X - Main Group Element) Intermetallics.

Rare Earth (re) based intermetallics are a fascinating class of inorganic compounds due to the presence of highly localized f-electrons. Among the ternary intermetallics, RETX (RE - Rare Earth, T - Transition metals, X - 13-15th elements of the main groups) is one of the most widely studied RE-based intermetallic families in terms of diverse crystal structures as well as physical properties. This perspective presents a brief account of different structural variations observed in this family of compounds. We have also discussed structure-property correlations in selected compounds in this series that show interesting physical properties such as spin-glass behavior, superconductivity, heavy fermion behavior, Kondo behavior, etc. The origin of different physical properties of these compounds is also discussed in brief by correlating their crystal structures.