Body Centered Cubic Carbon bc14: An All- sp3 Bonded Full-Fledged Pentadiamond

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-10-2020

Publication Title

Physical Review B

Volume

102

Issue

18

First page number:

1

Last page number:

6

Abstract

© 2020 American Physical Society. We report on the finding of a hard carbon structure in body centered cubic (I213) symmetry that possesses an extremely high bulk modulus (386 GPa) and Vickers hardness (60 GPa) comparable to that of c-BN and diamond. This carbon phase has a 14-atom primitive cell in an all-sp3 bonding network comprising five-membered rings, making it a truly full-fledged pentadiamond. Total energy calculations show that it is more stable than the previously reported diamondlike six-membered-ring bonded BC8 and BC12 carbon phases. Electronic band structure calculations show that it is an insulator with an indirect band gap of 5.64 eV. Simulated x-ray diffraction patterns and lattice parameters provide an excellent match to the previously unexplained distinct diffraction peaks found in carbon soot. The present results establish a distinct type of carbon phase and offer insights into its outstanding structural, mechanical, and electronic properties.

Disciplines

Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics

Language

English

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