BACKGROUND:  Because of the high cost of diamond and diamond-substitutes for use as cutting and polishing tools and wear resistant coatings, scientists have long studied how to manufacture hard and superhard materials as replacements for these materials. Diamond gathers much of its strength characteristics from its atomic configuration and molecular bonding scheme. Diamond is a versatile abrasive and cutting tool however; it is very expensive and is ineffective when dealing with ferrous materials because of the formation of carbides during the cutting process. Diamond-substitutes, such as cubic boron nitride, are attractive alternatives that do not have this issue with ferrous materials, but their synthesis requires costly high-pressure manufacturing techniques.

INNOVATION:  To overcome many of these problems with materials in this area, researchers at UCLA have identified a way to manufacture a superhard material, rhenium diboride (ReB2), at ambient pressures. They have shown this material possesses incompressibility along its c-axis similar to that of diamond, has a high differential stress, and has high hardness under low load similar to cubic boron nitride.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS 

• Cutting and polishing tools
• Wear resistant coatings
• Industrial abrasive

ADVANTAGES

• Can be synthesized at ambient pressures
• Three different ambient pressure synthesis methods available
• Mechanical properties that rival current superhard materials

Related Papers (Selected)

• R.W. Cumberland, M.B. Weinberger, J.J. Gilman, S.M. Clark, S.H. Tolbert and R.B. Kaner, "Osmium Diboride, An Ultra-Incompressible, Hard Material," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 (2005), p. 7264 [more]
• H.Y. Chung, M.B. Weinberger, J.B. Levine, A. Kavner, J.M. Yang, S.H. Tolbert, R.B. Kaner, "Synthesis of Ultra-Incompressible Superhard Rhenium Diboride at Ambient Pressure," Science 316 (2007) p. 436 [more]
• H.Y. Chung, M.B. Weinberger, J.B. Levine, A. Kavner, J.M. Yang, S.H. Tolbert, R.B. Kaner, "Response to Comment on "Synthesis of Ultra-Incompressible Superhard Rhenium Diboride at Ambient Pressure," Science 318 (2007) [more]

Reference: UCLA Case No. 2008-619