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Science 20 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5823, pp. 436 - 439
DOI: 10.1126/science.1139322
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Reports

Synthesis of Ultra-Incompressible Superhard Rhenium Diboride at Ambient Pressure

Hsiu-Ying Chung,1,2* Michelle B. Weinberger,1* Jonathan B. Levine,1 Abby Kavner,3 Jenn-Ming Yang,2 Sarah H. Tolbert,1{dagger} Richard B. Kaner1,2{dagger}

The quest to create superhard materials rarely strays from the use of high-pressure synthetic methods, which typically require gigapascals of applied pressure. We report that rhenium diboride (ReB2), synthesized in bulk quantities via arc-melting under ambient pressure, rivals materials produced with high-pressure methods. Microindentation measurements on ReB2 indicated an average hardness of 48 gigapascals under an applied load of 0.49 newton, and scratch marks left on a diamond surface confirmed its superhard nature. Its incompressibility along the c axis was equal in magnitude to the linear incompressibility of diamond. In situ high-pressure x-ray diffraction measurements yielded a bulk modulus of 360 gigapascals, and radial diffraction indicated that ReB2 is able to support a remarkably high differential stress. This combination of properties suggests that this material may find applications in cutting when the formation of carbides prevents the use of traditional materials such as diamond.

1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1569, USA.
2 Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1595, USA.
3 Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tolbert{at}chem.ucla.edu (S.H.T.); kaner{at}chem.ucla.edu (R.B.K.)

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)