Extremely hard yet metallically conductive: Researchers develop novel material with high-tech prospects

Phys.org  July 8, 2019
An international team of researchers (Germany, Russia, Sweden, USA – University of Chicago, France) has developed a route to scale up the synthesis of rhenium nitride pernitride through a reaction between rhenium and ammonium azide, in a large-volume press at 33 GPa. Although metallic bonding is typically seen incompatible with intrinsic hardness, Re2(N2)(N)2 turned to be at a threshold for super hard materials. The process can be used for the synthesis of other nitrides, in particular nitrides of transition metals, which could also have technologically important properties…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

The structure of rhenium nitride pernitride containing single nitrogen atoms (red) and N-N nitrogen dumbbells (blue). Larger balls show rhenium atoms. Credit: Maxim Byko