Related papers: Cotunnite-structured titanium dioxide: the hardest…
Single crystals of novel orthorhombic (space group Pnnm) iron tetraboride FeB4 were synthesised at pressures above 8 GPa and high temperatures. Magnetic susceptibility measurements demonstrated bulk superconductivity below 2.9 K. The…
A first cobalt boride with the Co:B ratio below 1:1, Co5B16, was synthesized under high-pressure high-temperature conditions. It has a unique orthorhombic structure (space group Pmma, a = 19.1736(12), b = 2.9329(1), and c = 5.4886(2) {\AA},…
Nitrides, carbides and borides of transition metals are an attractive class of hard materials. Our recent preliminary explorations of the binary chemical compounds indicated that chromium-based materials are among the hardest transition…
We have developed a method for prediction of the hardest crystal structures in a given chemical system. It is based on the evolutionary algorithm USPEX (Universal Structure Prediction: Evolutionary Xtallography) and electronegativity-based…
In the present work we have proposed the method that allows one to easily estimate hardness and bulk modulus of known or hypothetical solid phases from the data on Gibbs energy of atomization of the elements and corresponding covalent…
Carbon is likely the most fascinating element of the periodic table because of the diversity of its allotropes stemming from its variable (sp, sp2, and sp3) bonding motifs. Exploration of new forms of carbon has been an eternal theme of…
Boron suboxide B6O, the hardest known oxide, has an R-3m crystal structure ({\alpha}-B6O) that can be described as an oxygen-intercalated structure of {\alpha}-boron, or, equivalently, as a cubic close packing of B12 icosahedra with two…
We have performed first-principles evolutionary searches for all stable titanium nitrides and have found, in addition to the well-known rocksalt-type TiN, new ground states Ti$_3$N$_2$, Ti$_4$N$_3$, Ti$_6$N$_5$ at atmospheric pressure, and…
In recent years, the superconductivity of novel layered materials, titanium-based pnictide oxides, was discovered. Due to the properties of possessing both cuprate and iron-based superconductors, these compounds have attracted the interest…
In a recent Letter, Fujii et. al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 016001] predicted a new carbon allotrope, pentadiamond, with remarkable mechanical properties: elastic moduli comparable or larger than diamond, and negative Poisson's ratio $\mu$ =…
Crystal structure searching and ab initio calculations have been used here to explore low-energy structures of boron carbides under high pressure. Under pressures of 85-110 GPa, a metastable B6C with R-3m symmetry is found to be…
The binary metal borides provide a promising platform for searching unique materials with superconductivity and super-hardness under high pressure, owing to the distinctive bonding characters of boron. In this work, combined the…
Transition metal nitrides have been suggested to have both high hardness and good thermal stability with large potential application value, but so far stable superhard transition metal nitrides have not been synthesized. Here, with our…
Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a wide band gap semiconducting material which is promising for photocatalysis. Here we present first-principles calculations to study the pressure dependence of structural and electronic properties of two TiO2…
Search of materials with C-N composition hold a great promise in creating materials which would rival diamond in hardness due to the very strong and relatively low-ionic C-N bond. Early experimental and theoretical works on C-N compounds…
Superconductivity in a novel class of layered materials, Ti-based pnictide oxides, was recently discovered. These compounds have attracted interest since they combine features of copper oxide and iron pnictide superconductors. Here the…
By electron and X-ray diffraction we establish that the CrB$_4$ compound discovered over 40 years ago crystallizes in the $oP10$ (\emph{Pnnm}) structure, in disagreement with previous experiments but in agreement with a recent…
Considerable excitement has been caused recently by the discovery that the binary boride system with stoichiometry MgB2 is superconducting at the remarkably high temperature of 39 K (1). This potentially opens the way to even higher Tc…
The oxide perovskites are a large family of materials with many important physical properties. Of particular interest has been the fact that this structure type provides an excellent structural framework for the existence of…
Nanostructure and mechanical properties of bulk nanocristalline cubic boron nitride have been studied by transmission electron microscopy, and micro- and nanoindentation. The obtained data on hardness, elastic properties and fracture…