SOLVothermal Structure Elucidation of Novel BorIDEs

The research initiative on the SOLVothermal Structure Elucidation of Novel BorIDEs the SOLVIDE project aims at discovering new materials with exceptional features. These materials are so-called borides: solids we use every day, for example as magnets in our headphones and as hard drives in our computers. Some borides are among the hardest and most heat-resistant of all known substances. They are used, for example, instead of diamond dust for grinding and polishing. We want to design new boride materials through an innovative method. The approach we want to develop is called a solvothermal synthesis. One can imagine this technique much like cooking with a pressure cooker: some ingredients (solid educts) are put in closed vessels (called autoclaves) together with water (or another solvent) and are heated. This way, crystals of until then unknown substantences, in our case complex, new borides are formed. Conventionally, borides are produced through very rough and energy-consuming methods. Controlling these conditions and achieving high-purity products is often a big challenge. We combine the know-how of the fellowship holder concerning the solvothermal synthesis and solvation chemistry as such, with the expertise of the host on complex borides, so as to develop an efficient route to obtain new borides. Subsequently, the products we obtain will be analyzed. Experimental and computer- chemical investigations will help us to understand the borides chemical structures and their properties. The key advance achieved this way, is to carve out (and possibly even predict) relations between the synthetic conditions and the formed structures. Like already known borides with ultra-hard, magnetic and even superconducting or catalytic properties to only name a few , the newly designed solids are very likely to be useful materials with a lot of possible applications. Main goal of our research is hence to not only obtain new, multifunctional borides, but also to understand synthesis-structure-property relations of these novel materials. Sophisticated material design based on according competence, not just an industrialized production, is the key point of our project. Particularly in Austria, an above average expertise in the development of new materials is a vital criterion for global compatibility. Our unravelling, systematic approach, helps to set especially complex systems like solid state synthesis a distinguishing step ahead.