The search of new superhard materials has received a strong impulse by industrial demands for low-cost alternatives to diamond and $c$-BN, such as metal borides. In this Letter we introduce a new family of superhard materials, “fused borophenes” (FBs), containing 2D boron layers that are interlinked to form a 3D network. These materials, identified through a high-throughput scan of ${\mathrm{B}}_x{\mathrm{C}}_{1-x}$ structures, exhibit Vicker's hardness comparable to those of the best commercial metal borides. Due to their low formation enthalpies, FBs could be synthesized by high-temperature methods, starting from appropriate precursors, or through quenching of high-pressure phases.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Crystal structure
• Hardness
• Structural properties
• Crystalline systems
• Density functional theory
• High-throughput calculations