Nanotwinned diamond with unprecedented hardness and stability

Huang, Quan; Yu, Dongli; Xu, Bin; Hu, Wentao; Ma, Yanming; Wang, Yanbin; Zhao, Zhisheng; Wen, Bin; He, Julong; Liu, Zhongyuan; Tian, Yongjun

doi:10.1038/nature13381

Cited by 667 publications

(470 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…These materials may be empirically related to high bulk modulus [651] and high shear modulus [600]. Strengthening due to grain size and nanotwinned structures also contributes to super hardness [652,653], resulting in hardness higher than that of single-crystal diamond [653].…”

Section: Superhard Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The major types of superhard materials are the B-C-N-O compounds with characteristics of short and strong 3D covalent bonds. Diamond, the hardest known substance until recently [653], is a well-known carbon form that can be synthesized from graphite at HP conditions [660]. When graphite is compressed under ambient temperature, x-ray IXS experiments showed that it undergoes a 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 transition at 17 GPa, where half of the π-bonds between graphite layers convert to σ-bonds, whereas the other half remain as π-bonds in the HP form [72].…”

Section: Superhard Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, nanotwinned diamond and nanotwinned cubic boron nitride have displayed unprecedented hardness and stability [652,653]. Bulk nanocrystalline diamonds and cubic boron nitrides have been synthesized under HP conditions with an enhanced hardness of 140 GPa [38] and 85 GPa [674], respectively.…”

Section: Superhard Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-pressure studies with x-rays using diamond anvil cells

2016

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Pressure profoundly alters all states of matter. The symbiotic development of ultrahighpressure diamond anvil cells, to compress samples to sustainable multi-megabar pressures; and synchrotron x-ray techniques, to probe materials' properties in situ, has enabled the exploration of rich high-pressure (HP) science. In this article, we first introduce the essential concept of diamond anvil cell technology, together with recent developments and its integration with other extreme environments. We then provide an overview of the latest developments in HP synchrotron techniques, their applications, and current problems, followed by a discussion of HP scientific studies using x-rays in the key multidisciplinary fields. These HP studies include: HP x-ray emission spectroscopy, which provides information on the filled electronic states of HP samples; HP x-ray Raman spectroscopy, which probes the HP chemical bonding changes of light elements; HP electronic inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy, which accesses high energy electronic phenomena, including electronic band structure, Fermi surface, excitons, plasmons, and their dispersions; HP resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy, which probes shallow core excitations, multiplet structures, and spin-resolved electronic structure; HP nuclear resonant x-ray spectroscopy, which provides phonon densities of state and time-resolved Mössbauer information; HP x-ray imaging, which provides information on hierarchical structures, dynamic processes, and internal strains; HP x-ray diffraction, which determines the fundamental structures and densities of single-crystal, polycrystalline, nanocrystalline, and non-crystalline materials; and HP radial x-ray diffraction, which yields deviatoric, elastic and rheological information. Integrating these tools with hydrostatic or uniaxial pressure media, laser and resistive heating, and cryogenic cooling, has enabled investigations of the structural, vibrational, electronic, and magnetic properties of materials over a wide range of pressure-temperature conditions.

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Section: Superhard Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Superhard Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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High-pressure studies with x-rays using diamond anvil cells

2016

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“…For example, ultrafine-grained Cu with nanoscale twins embedded in individual grains leads to a superstrength relative to conventional coarsegrained polycrystalline Cu [22]. In addition, nanotwins in ceramics have been found to dramatically enhance the hardness of diamond and boron nitride [23,24]. However, the influence of nanotwins on the mechanical properties of TE semiconductors remains largely unexplored.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Superstrengthening Bi2Te3 through Nanotwinning

Aydemir

Morozov

et al. 2017

Phys. Rev. Lett.

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Bismuth telluride (Bi 2 Te 3 ) based thermoelectric (TE) materials have been commercialized successfully as solid-state power generators, but their low mechanical strength suggests that these materials may not be reliable for long-term use in TE devices. Here we use density functional theory to show that the ideal shear strength of Bi 2 Te 3 can be significantly enhanced up to 215% by imposing nanoscale twins. We reveal that the origin of the low strength in single crystalline Bi 2 Te 3 is the weak van der Waals interaction between the Te1 coupling two Te1─Bi─Te2─Bi─Te1 five-layer quint substructures. However, we demonstrate here a surprising result that forming twin boundaries between the Te1 atoms of adjacent quints greatly strengthens the interaction between them, leading to a tripling of the ideal shear strength in nanotwinned Bi 2 Te 3 (0.6 GPa) compared to that in the single crystalline material (0.19 GPa). This grain boundary engineering strategy opens a new pathway for designing robust Bi 2 Te 3 TE semiconductors for high-performance TE devices. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.085501 The continued use of fossil fuels to satisfy escalating global energy requirements is causing severe unacceptable environmental impact. This has generated renewed interest in thermoelectric (TE) conversion technology to convert waste heat directly into electricity, which involves no CO 2 production, is scalable to large power plants, and involves no moving parts (silent) [1]. Over the past two decades, the conversion efficiency (zT) of TE materials has enhanced remarkably, approaching to ∼1.8 [2-4], putting TE materials on the threshold of commercial applications. However, under severe operation conditions, TE materials suffer from unavoidable thermomechanical stresses from cycling of the temperature gradients, leading to rapid deterioration of material performance and accelerated failure of TE devices [5][6][7]. In order for thermoelectrics to play a significant role in engineering applications to alternative energy, the strength and the toughness must be dramatically enhanced.Industrial low temperature waste heat accounts for almost one-third of total energy consumption [8]. The bismuth telluride (Bi 2 Te 3 ) state-of-the-art TE material has been widely used for TE refrigeration in this temperature range (300-550 K) [9], and is now being considered in the automotive industry for recovering waste heat from exhaust systems. Traditional elemental doping strategies have been successful in significantly improving TE properties [10,11], but they have had little effect on enhancing the mechanical properties [12]. Recently, nano-SiC particles dispersed in Bi 2 Te 3 were reported to enhance mechanical strength compared to pure Bi 2 Te 3 , but with concomitant deterioration of the electronic transport properties [13].A well-known mechanism for strengthening metal alloys is to increase the number of such interfacial boundaries as grain boundaries (GBs) and twin boundaries (TBs). These boundaries can strengthen the material by pinning...

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“…They recently made the astonishing discoveries that pressure could transform elemental sodium from a free-electron gas metal to a transparent insulator 5 , and that pressure could crush C 60 cages to form a new type of material with long-range ordering of short-range, disordered carbon clusters 6 . Meanwhile, researchers at Yanshan University made breakthroughs in the high-pressure synthesis of ultrahard nanotwinned cubic boron nitride 7 and nanotwinned diamond 8 , and researchers at Zhejiang University reported pressure-induced devitrification of Ce 3 Ala seemingly disordered metallic glass -to a single crystal 9 .…”

Section: Focus | Featurementioning

confidence: 99%

Correction

2016

Nature Mater

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NATURE MATERIALSConsidering the importance and difficulties faced in this research field, the government should invest more in the necessary resources required for success, including platforms for high-throughput computational searches, rapid experimental synthesis and characterization facilities, and databases of material structures and properties. These features are all part of the MGI in the United States, and presents researchers with opportunities to take computational research to the next level. Although infrastructure is gradually falling into place, more will need to be done to ensure that computational materials science in China can be successful in obtaining improved materials. ❐ Research Center, Haidan, Beijing 100193, China. e-mail: haiqing0@csrc.ac.cn References 1. Xie, X. Acta Phys. Sin. 14, 164-190 (1958 Adv. Mater. 11, 1071-1078(1999). 4. Lin, Z. S. et al. J. Phys. D. 47, 253001 (2014). 5. Yang, J.-H. et al. Nano Lett. 16, 1110-1117). 6. Wang, Z. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 9146-9152 (2015. 7. Zhang, S., Zhao, S. Kang, W., Zhang, P. & He, X.-T. Phys. Rev. B 93, 115114 (2016). Hai-Qing Lin is at the Beijing Computational Science High pressure presses aheadHo-kwang Mao discusses the history of high-pressure research in China, and recent developments to ensure further success.

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Nanotwinned diamond with unprecedented hardness and stability

Cited by 667 publications

References 28 publications

High-pressure studies with x-rays using diamond anvil cells

High-pressure studies with x-rays using diamond anvil cells

Superstrengthening Bi2Te3 through Nanotwinning

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