Vanadium Diboride (VB2) Synthesized at High Pressure: Elastic, Mechanical, Electronic, and Magnetic Properties and Thermal Stability

Pei Wang; Ravhi Kumar; Esakki Muthu Sankaran; Xintong Qi; Xinyu Zhang; Dmitry Popov; Andrew L Cornelius; Baosheng Li; Yusheng Zhao; Liping Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b02550

Vanadium Diboride (VB₂) Synthesized at High Pressure: Elastic, Mechanical, Electronic, and Magnetic Properties and Thermal Stability

Inorg Chem. 2018 Feb 5;57(3):1096-1105. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b02550. Epub 2018 Jan 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, University of Nevada, Las Vegas , Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, United States.
² Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University , Stony Brook, New York 11794, United States.
³ State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University , Qinhuangdao 066004, People's Republic of China.
⁴ High Pressure Collaborative Access Team, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington , Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States.

PMID: 29360374
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b02550

Abstract

Vanadium diboride (VB₂) with an AlB₂-type structure has been synthesized at 8 GPa and 1700 K in a D-DIA-type multianvil apparatus. The obtained bulk modulus is B₀ = 262(2) GPa with fixed B' = 4.0 for VB₂ via high-pressure X-ray diffraction measurements. Meanwhile, VB₂ has also been demonstrated to possess a high Vickers hardness of 27.2 ± 1.5 GPa, a high thermal stability of 1410 K in air, among the highest for transition-metal borides, and an extremely low resistivity value (41 μΩ cm) at room temperature. Results from first-principles calculations regarding the mechanical and electronic properties of VB₂ are largely consistent with the experimental observations and further suggest that VB₂ possesses simultaneously the properties of a hard and refractory ceramic and those of an excellent electric conductor.