ABSENCE OF BULK MAGNETIC-ORDERING IN PR3RU4GE13

It has been reported in the literature [1] that the cubic compound Pr3 Ru4Ge13 orders magnetically at 14.2 K. We have measured magnetic susce ptibility (chi) and resistivity (rho) from 2 to 300 K and the heat cap acity (C-p) from 4 to 20 K of a sample of Pr3Ru4Ge13. The chi data ind icate Curie-Weiss behaviour only at high temperatures (T>100 K) and 1/ chi deviates from linearity at low temperatures. Although the chi, rho and C-p data show an,anomaly at 14 K, the very small magnitude of the heat capacity anomaly rules out bulk magnetic ordering in Pr3Ru4Ge13. The effective paramagnetic moment (mu(eff)) is 3.46 mu(B)/Pr, and is close to that of free pr(3+) ion. The heat capacity data give an enhan ced value of C-p/T(T --> 0 K) of 100 mJ/Pr mol K-2, and the resistivit y data show an unusual Kondo-like dependence at high temperature.