Experimental study and critical review of structural, thermodynamic and mechanical properties of superhard refractory boron suboxide, B6O

TL;DR

This paper reviews and analyzes existing data on B6O, a superhard refractory boron suboxide, to clarify its properties, predict its thermoelastic behavior, and understand how non-stoichiometry and temperature affect its hardness.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive critical review and semi-empirical analysis of B6O's properties, offering refined values and predictive models for its thermodynamic and mechanical characteristics.

Findings

Selected best values of thermodynamic and mechanical properties.

Predicted thermoelastic equation of state for B6O.

Analyzed hardness dependence on non-stoichiometry and temperature.

Abstract

In the present paper we performed the analysis of available data on structural, thermodynamic and mechanical properties of B6O. Although the compound is known for half a century and has been extensively studied, many properties of this boron-rich solid remain unknown or doubtful. Semi-empirical analysis of our experimental and literature data allowed us to choose the best values of main thermodynamic and mechanical characteristics among previously reported data, to predict the thermoelastic equation of state of B6O, and dependence of its hardness on non-stoichiometry and temperature.