High-entropy monoborides: Towards superhard materials

Single-phase high-entropy monoborides (HEMBs) of the CrB prototype structure have been synthesized for the first time. Reactive spark plasma sintering of ball milled mixtures of elemental precursor powders produced bulk (V0.2Cr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2Ta0.2)B, (V0.2Cr0.2Nb0.2Mo0.2W0.2)B, and (V0.2Cr0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2W0.2)B HEMB specimens of ~98.3–99.5% relative densities. Vickers hardness was measured to be ~22–26 GPa at an indentation load of 9.8 N and ~32–37 GPa at 0.98 N. In particular, the load-dependent hardness of (V0.2Cr0.2Nb0.2Ta0.2W0.2)B is higher than those of ternary (Ta0.5W0.5)B (already considered as superhard) and hardest reported high-entropy metal diborides, and on a par with the classical superhard boride WB4.