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Elastic properties, fracture toughness, ideal tensile strength and thermal conductivities of the stable hexagonal WB2, W2B5, WB3 and WB4

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Abstract

In the present study, we calculated the effects of boron content on the elastic properties, fracture toughness, ideal tensile strength ([0001] and [11\(\overline{2}\)1] directions) and thermal conductivities of the stable hexagonal tungsten borides (hP12-WB2, hP16-W2B5, hP16-WB3 and hP10-WB4) by the first-principles calculations. The results showed that the hardness of the four tungsten borides is ranked in the order hP16-WB3 > hP10-WB4 > hP16-W2B5 > hP12-WB2, and hP16-WB3 is the hardest with the hardness of 36.9 Gpa and can be considered as a potentially superhard material. The fracture toughness of these tungsten borides decreases as the boron content increases. Moreover, the [0001]-direction ideal tensile strength and the thermal conductivities increase with the increase in boron content. The [0001]-direction ideal tensile strength is in the sequence of hP10-WB4 > hP16-WB3 > hP16-W2B5 > hP12-WB2. Finally, the thermal conductivities of these borides are anisotropic and in the order of hP10-WB4 > hP16-WB3 > hP16-W2B5 > hP12-WB2.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51761023 and the Yunnan Ten Thousand Talents Plan Young & Elite Talents Project under Grant No. YNWR-QNBJ-2018-044.

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  1. Faculty of Material Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650093, China

    Ancang Yang, Yonghua Duan, Mingjun Peng, Li Shen & Huarong Qi

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  1. Ancang Yang
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Yang, A., Duan, Y., Peng, M. et al. Elastic properties, fracture toughness, ideal tensile strength and thermal conductivities of the stable hexagonal WB2, W2B5, WB3 and WB4. Appl. Phys. A 128, 152 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-022-05299-1

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