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Published October 25, 2016 | Supplemental Material + Published
Journal Article Open

Breaking the icosahedra in boron carbide

Abstract

Findings of laser-assisted atom probe tomography experiments on boron carbide elucidate an approach for characterizing the atomic structure and interatomic bonding of molecules associated with extraordinary structural stability. The discovery of crystallographic planes in these boron carbide datasets substantiates that crystallinity is maintained to the point of field evaporation, and characterization of individual ionization events gives unexpected evidence of the destruction of individual icosahedra. Statistical analyses of the ions created during the field evaporation process have been used to deduce relative atomic bond strengths and show that the icosahedra in boron carbide are not as stable as anticipated. Combined with quantum mechanics simulations, this result provides insight into the structural instability and amorphization of boron carbide. The temporal, spatial, and compositional information provided by atom probe tomography makes it a unique platform for elucidating the relative stability and interactions of primary building blocks in hierarchically crystalline materials.

Additional Information

© 2016 National Academy of Sciences. Edited by William D. Nix, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved August 30, 2016 (received for review May 18, 2016) We acknowledge the facilities and the scientific and technical assistance of the Australian Microscopy and Microanalysis Research Facility at the Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney. This research was sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory and accomplished under Cooperative Agreement W911NF-12-2-0022. In addition, Q.A. and W.A.G. received partial support from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Grant W31P4Q-13-1-0010 (Program Manager John Paschkewitz) and National Science Foundation Grant DMR-1436985. Author contributions: K.Y.X., J.M.C., and K.J.H. designed research; K.Y.X., Q.A., T.S., and A.J.B. performed research; K.Y.X., Q.A., T.S., A.J.B., W.A.G., J.M.C., and K.J.H. analyzed data; and K.Y.X., Q.A., T.S., A.J.B., S.P.R., W.A.G., J.M.C., and K.J.H. wrote the paper. The authors declare no conflict of interest. This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1607980113/-/DCSupplemental.

Attached Files

Published - PNAS-2016-Xie-12012-6.pdf

Supplemental Material - pnas.1607980113.sm01.avi

Supplemental Material - pnas.201607980SI.pdf

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Created:
August 22, 2023
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October 23, 2023