  Pauling had proposed that charge is transferred from the more electronegative
atom to the less electronegative one during metallic alloying. An expression
has recently been derived for the energy of the unlike atom-pair bond using
that concept. In this paper, Pauling's view is further supported by showing
that the electronegativity and valence differences between unlike atoms in
binary metallic alloys are of the required magnitude and direction so as to
bring the metallic radii ratio R_A/R_B by charge transfer to a value r_A/r_B
for ideal packing in an intermetallic compound. It is also demonstrated that
lattice parameters of intermetallic compounds belonging to several crystal
structure types can be obtained with excellent accuracy from the length of the
atom-pair bond.

Materials Science