DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: High‐Pressure Synthesis of Ultra‐Incompressible, Hard and Superconducting Tungsten Nitrides

Journal Article · · Advanced Functional Materials
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [6];  [7]; ORCiD logo [6];  [8];  [8];  [8]; ORCiD logo [9];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1] more »;  [3];  [2];  [10];  [5];  [1] « less
  1. Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions and School of Physics and Astronomy University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9YL UK
  2. Department of Chemistry University of Munich (LMU) 81377 Munich Germany
  3. Spallation Neutron Source Science Center Dongguan 523000 P. R. China
  4. Institute for Inorganic Chemistry University of Cologne 50923 Cologne Germany
  5. Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) Linköping University Linköping 58183 Sweden
  6. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility Grenoble 38000 France
  7. Photon Science Deutsches Elektronen‐Synchrotron 22607 Hamburg Germany
  8. Material Physics and Technology at Extreme Conditions Laboratory of Crystallography University of Bayreuth 95447 Bayreuth Germany
  9. Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions and School of Physics and Astronomy University of Edinburgh Edinburgh EH8 9YL UK, Center for High‐Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research Shanghai 201203 P. R. China, Key Laboratory of Materials Physics Institute of Solid State Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Hefei Anhui 230031 P. R. China
  10. Institute for Inorganic Chemistry University of Cologne 50923 Cologne Germany, Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität 60438 Frankfurt Germany

Abstract Transition metal nitrides, particularly those of 5 d metals, are known for their outstanding properties, often relevant for industrial applications. Among these metal elements, tungsten is especially attractive given its low cost. In this high‐pressure investigation of the W–N system, two novel ultra‐incompressible tungsten nitride superconductors, namely W 2 N 3 and W 3 N 5 , are successfully synthesized at 35 and 56 GPa, respectively, through a direct reaction between N 2 and W in laser‐heated diamond anvil cells. Their crystal structure is determined using synchrotron single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction. While the W 2 N 3 solid's sole constituting nitrogen species are N 3‐ units, W 3 N 5 features both discrete N 3‐ as well as N 2 4‐ pernitride anions. The bulk modulus of W 2 N 3 and W 3 N 5 is experimentally determined to be 380(3) and 406(7) GPa, and their ultra‐incompressible behavior is rationalized by their constituting WN 7 polyhedra and their linkages. Importantly, both W 2 N 3 and W 3 N 5 are recoverable to ambient conditions and stable in air. Density functional theory calculations reveal W 2 N 3 and W 3 N 5 to have a Vickers hardness of 30 and 34 GPa, and superconducting transition temperatures at ambient pressure (50 GPa) of 11.6 K (9.8 K) and 9.4 K (7.2 K), respectively. Additionally, transport measurements performed at 50 GPa on W 2 N 3 corroborate with the calculations.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
2350853
Journal Information:
Advanced Functional Materials, Journal Name: Advanced Functional Materials Journal Issue: 32 Vol. 34; ISSN 1616-301X
Publisher:
Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English

References (92)

High-Pressure Synthesis of Tantalum Nitride Having Orthorhombic U 2 S 3 Structure journal July 2009
ELF: The Electron Localization Function journal September 1997
Crystal Structures of and Displacive Transitions in OsN2, IrN2, RuN2, and RhN2 journal February 2007
High‐Pressure Synthesis of Metal–Inorganic Frameworks Hf 4 N 20 ⋅N 2 , WN 8 ⋅N 2 , and Os 5 N 28 ⋅3 N 2 with Polymeric Nitrogen Linkers journal May 2020
LOBSTER: A tool to extract chemical bonding from plane-wave based DFT: Tool to Extract Chemical Bonding journal February 2016
Lattice Constants and Thermal Expansion of Gold up to 878 °C by X-Ray Method journal January 1963
First principles study of structural, elastic, electronic and optical properties of Nb2N and Ta2N compounds journal May 2011
Mechanical Properties of the Elements book January 1968
Effect of pressure and temperature on the lattice parameters of rhenium journal June 1970
The transformation temperature of hafnium journal March 1965
The lattice parameter of tantalum journal August 1977
Superconducting and normal state properties of tantalumcarbonitrides under hydrostatic pressure journal December 1976
Recent advances in magnetic structure determination by neutron powder diffraction journal October 1993
Bulk modulus of osmium, 4–300K journal January 2009
Prediction of novel ground state and high pressure phases for W2N3: First-principles journal January 2019
New opportunities at the Materials Science Beamline at ESRF to exploit high energy nano-focus X-ray beams journal April 2020
Modeling hardness of polycrystalline materials and bulk metallic glasses journal September 2011
Prediction of stable high-pressure structures of tantalum nitride TaN2 journal October 2019
Thermal equation-of-state of osmium: a synchrotron X-ray diffraction study journal May 2005
Synthesis, electron transport properties of transition metal nitrides and applications journal May 2015
A novel superhard tungsten nitride predicted by machine-learning accelerated crystal structure search journal July 2018
First principles phonon calculations in materials science journal November 2015
Synthesis, Crystal Structures, Mechanical Properties, and Formation Mechanisms of Cubic Tungsten Nitrides journal October 2022
Thermal Expansion of Incompressible U2S3-Type Nb2N3 Synthesized in a Diamond Anvil Cell journal May 2020
Crystal and Electronic Structure of U7Te12-Type Tungsten Nitride Synthesized under High Pressure journal August 2021
Synthesis and Mechanical Character of Hexagonal Phase δ−WN journal March 2017
High-Pressure Synthesis and Crystal Structure of MoC-Type Tungsten Nitride by Nitridation with Ammonium Chloride journal December 2019
Crystal Orbital Bond Index: Covalent Bond Orders in Solids journal April 2021
Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Elastic Properties of Novel Tungsten Nitrides journal August 2012
Nature of N−N Bonding within High-Pressure Noble-Metal Pernitrides and the Prediction of Lanthanum Pernitride journal February 2010
Bulk modulus-volume relationship for cation-anion polyhedra journal November 1979
The most incompressible metal osmium at static pressures above 750 gigapascals journal August 2015
Synthesis and characterization of a binary noble metal nitride journal April 2004
Synthesis of cubic zirconium and hafnium nitride having Th3P4 structure journal February 2003
High-pressure synthesis of ultraincompressible hard rhenium nitride pernitride Re2(N2)(N)2 stable at ambient conditions journal July 2019
Chemistry under high pressure journal September 2020
High-pressure synthesis and crystal structures of molybdenum nitride Mo3N5 with anisotropic compressibility by a nitrogen dimer journal January 2023
High pressure synthesis of superconducting nitrides in the MoN–NbN system journal January 2010
Mechanical and metallic properties of tantalum nitrides from first-principles calculations journal January 2014
Thermal Expansion of Tungsten at Low Temperatures journal August 1971
Chemistry of high-temperature superconductivity in the NbN family journal August 1972
Infrared and Raman spectra of solid and matrix isolated diimide, HNNH journal March 1973
Flow of covalent solids at low temperatures journal December 1975
Incompressibility of osmium metal at ultrahigh pressures and temperatures journal May 2010
A consistent and accurate ab initio parametrization of density functional dispersion correction (DFT-D) for the 94 elements H-Pu journal April 2010
A simple measure of electron localization in atomic and molecular systems journal May 1990
High P-T phase transitions and P-V-T equation of state of hafnium journal June 2012
Equation of state of rhenium and application for ultra high pressure calibration journal January 2014
High-pressure synthesis and compressive behavior of tantalum nitrides journal March 2014
Q uantum ESPRESSO toward the exascale journal April 2020
Hard superconducting nitrides journal February 2005
Toward an internally consistent pressure scale journal May 2007
The Compressibility of Media under Extreme Pressures journal September 1944
DIOPTAS : a program for reduction of two-dimensional X-ray diffraction data and data exploration journal May 2015
Electronic properties, phonon densities of states and superconductivity in Nb1-xVxN journal February 1985
Effect of high pressure on the phonon spectra and superconductivity in ZrN and HfN journal June 2009
QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials journal September 2009
Advanced capabilities for materials modelling with Quantum ESPRESSO journal October 2017
Investigation of the Superconductivity of Hafnium journal June 1956
Precision Measurements of the Lattice Constants of Twelve Common Metals journal June 1925
Finite Elastic Strain of Cubic Crystals journal June 1947
Transition temperature of strong-coupled superconductors reanalyzed journal August 1975
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1976
Phonon anomalies in transition-metal nitrides: HfN journal July 1983
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Equation of state of tantalum to 174 GPa journal April 1999
Bulk modulus of osmium: High-pressure powder x-ray diffraction experiments under quasihydrostatic conditions journal July 2004
Equations of state of six metals above 94 GPa journal September 2004
Superhard hexagonal transition metal and its carbide and nitride: Os, OsC, and OsN journal August 2005
High pressure–high temperature equations of state of neon and diamond journal March 2008
Electronic and bonding analysis of hardness in pyrite-type transition-metal pernitrides journal October 2014
Finding the stable structures of N 1 − x W x with an ab initio high-throughput approach journal May 2015
Osmium Metal Studied under High Pressure and Nonhydrostatic Stress journal January 2008
Thermodynamic and Mechanical Stabilities of Tantalum Nitride journal October 2009
Novel Rhenium Nitrides journal August 2010
Superconductivity of Tungsten journal June 1964
Tungsten Hexanitride with Single-Bonded Armchairlike Hexazine Structure at High Pressure journal February 2021
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Hardness of Covalent Crystals journal July 2003
Experimental Evidence for a High-Pressure Isostructural Phase Transition in Osmium journal August 2004
Synthesis of Novel Transition Metal Nitrides IrN 2 and OsN 2 journal April 2006
High-pressure Na3(N2)4, Ca3(N2)4, Sr3(N2)4, and Ba(N2)3 featuring nitrogen dimers with noninteger charges and anion-driven metallicity journal February 2022
Phonons and related crystal properties from density-functional perturbation theory journal July 2001
OLEX2 : a complete structure solution, refinement and analysis program journal January 2009
Determination of thermal expansion of germanium, rhodium and iridium by X-rays journal July 1968
Domain Auto Finder (DAFi) program: the analysis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data from polycrystalline samples journal September 2022
The Extreme Conditions Beamline P02.2 and the Extreme Conditions Science Infrastructure at PETRA III journal June 2015
Synthesis of hexagonal phases of WN and W 2.25 N 3 by high-pressure metathesis reaction journal October 2017
Superconducting transition temperatures of reactively sputtered films of tantalum nitride and tungsten nitride journal January 1975
Microhardness of osmium borides, carbides, and nitrides journal July 2012
Ultraincompressible, Superhard Materials journal July 2016
The Crystal Parameters of Osmium and Ruthenium at Different Temperatures journal November 1937