#carbonitrides

Neural networks unlock potential of high-entropy carbonitrides in extreme environments

The melting point is one of the most important measurements of material properties, which informs potential applications of materials in various fields. Experimental measurement of the melting point is complex and expensive, but computational methods could help achieve an equally accurate result more quickly and easily. A research group from Skoltech conducted a study to calculate the maximum melting point of a high-entropy carbonitrides—a compound of titanium, zirconium, tantalum, hafnium, and niobium with carbon and nitrogen. The results published in the Scientific Reports journal indicate that high-entropy carbonitrides can be used as promising materials for protective coatings of equipment operating under extreme conditions—high temperature, thermal shock, and chemical corrosion.

Computational method discovers hundreds of new ceramics for extreme environments

If you have a deep-seated, nagging worry over dropping your phone in molten lava, you're in luck. A research team led by materials scientists at Duke University has developed a method for rapidly discovering a new class of materials with heat and electronic tolerances so rugged that they could enable devices to function at lava-like temperatures above several thousands of degrees Fahrenheit. Harder than steel and stable in chemically corrosive environments, these materials could also form the basis of new wear- and corrosion-resistant coatings, thermoelectrics, batteries, catalysts, and radiation-resistant devices. The recipes for these materials—ceramics made using transition metals carbonitrides or borides—were discovered through a new computational method called Disordered Enthalpy-Entropy Descriptor (DEED). In its first demonstration, the program predicted the synthesizability of 900 new formulations of high-performance materials, 17 of which were then tested and successfully produced in laboratories.

Researchers discover new chemistry of 2-D transition metal carbides and carbonitrides

A new finding about the fundamental chemistry of two-dimensional materials called MXenes will change the way researchers work with them, and open up new areas of applications, according to researchers at Missouri S&T.

MXenes are ceramics that make up one of the largest families of 2-D conductive materials. Their conductivity makes them candidates for use in energy storage, sensing, and optoelectronics. According to the nanosciences information portal Nanowerk, what makes MXenes so interesting is that the materials could conceivably consist of any of millions of possible arrangements of transition metals (like molybdenum or titanium), carbon and nitrogen.

Out of these myriad potential arrangements, only a few dozen have been synthesized so far. This is largely because the number of synthetic approaches to MXenes is limited by lack of understanding the chemical properties of the materials, says Dr. Vadym Mochalin, associate professor of chemistry at Missouri S&T.

Mochalin and Shuohan Huang, a chemistry doctoral student in Mochalin's group at Missouri S&T, are the first to document the gaseous products of MXenes' reactions in aqueous environments.