High-Pressure Synthesis and Recovery of Single Crystals of the Metastable Manganese Carbide, MnCx
Graphical Abstract
Transition metal carbides are used widely throughout industry for their high hardness, superior resistance to corrosion, and stability under extremes of temperature and radiation. Here we describe the discovery of a novel sub-stoichiometric anti-NiAs-type compound, MnCx (P63/mmc), synthesized at pressures between ~5–10 GPa and recovered fully to ambient conditions as single crystals.
Abstract
Transition metal carbides find widespread use throughout industry due to their high strength and resilience under extreme conditions. However, they remain largely limited to compounds formed from the early d-block elements, since the mid-to-late transition metals do not form thermodynamically stable carbides. We report here the high-pressure bulk synthesis of large single crystals of a novel metastable manganese carbide compound, MnCx (P63/mmc), which adopts the anti-NiAs-type structure with significant substoichiometry at the carbon sites. We demonstrate how synthesis pressure modulates the carbon loading, with ~40 % occupancy being achieved at 9.9 GPa.
Conflict of interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.