Abstract
This contribution focuses on the structural and physical properties of U-based Laves phases. The majority of the uranium Laves phases show a weakly paramagnetic behaviour.
The reason is the compact structure of the phases that leads to small a U-U spacing as well as very high coordination numbers, regarding both the uranium and the ligands sublattices, which brings a strong hybridization with non-f states. However, there are some exceptions of uranium Laves phases that do order magnetically (UFe2, UNi2 and the recently discovered U2Fe3Ge compound).