Ultra-refractory diborides are currently studied mainly as thermal protection materials for aerospace and military applications. However, their favourable properties (very high melting points and good thermo-mechanical properties at high temperatures) can be advantageously exploited to increase the operating temperature of thermodynamic solar plants in concentrating solar power systems. This pa...

M. Amiriyan, S. Ramesh*, R. Tolouei, W.J. Kelvin Chew, J. Purbolaksono, M.A. Hassan, M. Hamdi and W.D. Teng Faculty of Science and Engineering, Laval University, Quebec, G1V 0A6 Canada Centre of Advanced Manufacturing & Material Processing (AMMP), Department of Engineering Design and Manufacture, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Ceramics Technology Grou...

As the Si counterpart of graphene, silicene may be defined as an at least partially sp2-hybridized, atom-thick honeycomb layer of Si that possesses π-electronic bands. Here we show that two-dimensional, epitaxial silicene forms through surface segregation on zirconium diboride thin films grown on Si wafers. A particular buckling of silicene induced by the epitaxial relationship with the diborid...

Mechanical properties and microstructure were compared for zirconium diboride two solid solutions containing 3 6 at% tantalum diboride. X-ray diffraction indicated that the ceramics nearly phase-pure dissolved into ZrB2 lattice to form (Zr,Ta)B2 solutions. Microstructural analysis samples achieved full relative density with average grain sizes ranged from 3−5 μm. The three compositions had simi...