Structural stability of W₂B₅ under high pressure

Abstract

High-pressure structural stability studies have been carried out on tungsten boride W₂B₅ up to maximum pressure of 36 GPa using a Mao-Bell diamond-anvil cell at beamline BR-12 of the ELETTRA synchrotron facility (λ = 0.68881 Å). The hexagonal phase (S.G:P6₃/mmc) of W₂B₅ is stable up to the maximum pressure studied. The bulk modulus is estimated to be ~347 GPa using the Birch–Murnaghan equation of state. The variation of lattice parameters and bond lengths B–B and W–B have been studied and the c-axis is seen to be marginally more compressible than the a-axis.

Keywords:

• transition-metal boride
• high pressures
• X-ray diffraction
• structural stability

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the scientists of the XRD1 beamline at the ELETTRA synchrotron source for their help in carrying out the HPXRD experiments and the DST for providing support. We thank Sri LM Sundaram for his technical assistance, and Dr M Sekar and Sri Balmukund Shulka for discussions. We also acknowledge the support and encouragement of IGCAR management.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.