Shear amorphization of boron suboxide

Nucleation of amorphous shear bands at nanotwins in boron suboxide

The roles of grain boundaries and twin boundaries in mechanical properties are well understood for metals and alloys. However, for covalent solids, their roles in deformation response to applied stress are not established. Here we characterize the nanotwins in boron suboxide (B6O) with twin boundaries along the {0111} planes using both scanning transmission electron microscopy and quantum mecha...

Depressurization amorphization of single-crystal boron carbide.

We report depressurization amorphization of single-crystal boron carbide (B4C) investigated by in situ high-pressure Raman spectroscopy. It was found that localized amorphization of B4C takes place during unloading from high pressures, and nonhydrostatic stresses play a critical role in the high-pressure phase transition. First-principles molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the depressur...

Nanotwinned Boron Suboxide (B6O): New Ground State of B6O.

Nanotwinned structures in superhard ceramics rhombohedral boron suboxide (R-B6O) have been examined using a combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and quantum mechanics (QM). QM predicts negative relative energies to R-B6O for various twinned R-B6O (denoted as τ-B6O, 2τ-B6O, and 4τ-B6O), consistent with the recently predicted B6O structure with Cmcm space group (τ-B6O) which has ...

In situ observation of shear-driven amorphization in silicon crystals.

Amorphous materials are used for both structural and functional applications. An amorphous solid usually forms under driven conditions such as melt quenching, irradiation, shock loading or severe mechanical deformation. Such extreme conditions impose significant challenges on the direct observation of the amorphization process. Various experimental techniques have been used to detect how the am...

Sound velocity in carbon suboxide.