Hardness can be defined microscopically as the combined resistance of chemical bonds in
a material to indentation. The current review presents three most popular microscopic …

The appreciable progress has been achieved currently in the development of design
principles, synthesis, investigations and predictions of various groups of ultra …

The separation of chalcopyrite from pyrite is usually carried out under high alkaline
conditions. However, the separation mechanism of chalcopyrite from pyrite under high …

Simultaneously hard and tough nitride ceramics open new venues for a variety of advanced
applications. To produce such materials, attention is focused on the development of high …

A novel carbon allotrope of C-centered orthorhombic C 8 (Cco-C 8) is predicted by using a
recently developed particle-swarm optimization method on structural search. Cco-C 8 …

We reported a developed methodology to design superhard materials for given chemical
systems under external conditions (here, pressure). The new approach is based on the …

Transition metal nitrides have been suggested to have both high hardness and good
thermal stability with large potential application value, but so far stable superhard transition …

Uncovering the hardening mechanisms is of great importance to accelerate the design of
superhard high‐entropy carbides (HECs). Herein, the hardening mechanisms of HECs by a …

Group 14 elements (C, Si, and Ge) exist as various stable and metastable allotropes, some
of which have been widely applied in industry. The discovery of new allotropes of these …

We use density functional theory calculations to explore the effects of alloying cubic TiN and
VN with transition metals M= Nb, Ta, Mo or W at 50% concentrations. The ternary systems …