Reply to `Comment on `New ternary nitride in the Ti-Al-N system''

Lee Dong Lee and Willian Petuskey react on the comments made by Barsoum and Schuster regarding the `New ternary nitride in the Ti-Al-N'. Lee and Petuskey agree with Barsoum and Schuster on the existence of the compound as identified by the X-ray powder diffraction, but differ on the correct composition. Barsoum and Schuster based their assessment on atom packing arguments analogous to the H-phases of other Ti-based chemical systems and suggested that the correct composition is Ti₃Al₂N₂. On the other hand, Lee and Petuskey based their conclusions on direct chemical measurement that yielded the general formula Ti₃Al_1-xN₂ where 0<x<0.3.