new use for tantalum ... maybe "These materials are harder and lighter in weight than current carbides," said Stefano Curtarolo, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Duke.
While the new carbides are all likely to have desirable industrial properties, one improbable combination stood out -- a combination of molybdenum, niobium, tantalum, vanadium and tungsten called MoNbTaVWC5 for short.
"Getting this set of elements to combine is basically like trying to squeeze together a bunch of squares and hexagons," said Cormac Toher, an assistant research professor in Curtarolo's laboratory. "Going on intuition alone, you'd never think that combination would be feasible. But it turns out that the best candidates are actually counterintuitive."
"We don't know its exact properties yet because it hasn't been fully tested," said Curtarolo. "But once we get it into the laboratory in the next couple of months, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be the hardest material with the highest melting point ever made."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181126145818.htm