When the research and development of materials beyond diamond hardness is in progress, they can be prepared at room temperature and widely used

▲ WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride) is a new boron rich phase, and its hardness and fracture toughness are better than those of the existing material Pobedit.

On June 17, ScienceBlog reported that Russian and Chinese scientists reported a new super hard material WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride) in Physical Chemistry Letters. This material can be prepared under normal pressure, and its key parameters (hardness and fracture toughness) are superior to the widely used "Pobedit (a hard tungsten carbide cobalt composite with artificial diamonds)". WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride) has good application prospects in drilling, machining, national defense and other fields.

Diamond is the hardest material known, but its cost is high. Therefore, Pobedit, the "competitor" of diamonds, has been favored for more than 80 years. Pobedit comes from the Russian word "Pobeta", which means victory. It was developed in the 1930s and was mainly used to manufacture anti tank shells in World War II. Pobedit has been used in the manufacture of drilling equipment (bits) for decades.

High pressure synthesis conditions are required to produce materials with higher hardness, and their fracture toughness is often low. This has become a difficult problem for material scientists. At Artem? Under the leadership of Professor Artem Oganov, a research team from Skoltech used their USPEX evolutionary algorithm to predict a new material WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride). This material can be synthesized under normal pressure, and its hardness (50% higher) and fracture toughness (20% lower) are superior to those of Pobedit. The research of WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride) is based on the large-scale project of Gazprom Neft. The project aims to develop new materials for drilling equipment. Artem? Professor Oganov said: "Before the discovery of WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride), we had carried out a lot of calculations in the computer, trying to find stable compounds and calculate their properties. Although these compounds are very interesting, they can not shake the status of Pobedit. Sometimes, we even began to despair. Fortunately, the discovery of WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride) gave us hope again." Alexander, the first author of the paper? Dr. Alexander Kvashnin said: "Tungsten boron compounds have been one of the hot topics in theoretical and experimental research. Surprisingly, WB5 (subscript 5, tungsten pentaboride) has not been discovered until now."

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Reprinted from: Science and Technology Worker's Home - Science and Technology App.