High pressure synthesis of iridium carbide

An important area of research in the field of high pressure physics has been the search for new super-hard materials with improved chemical and thermal stability comparable to or more than that of diamond. Compounds formed between TM and light elements like B, C, N and O have immense industrial applications due to their high hardness, high melting point, excellent thermal conductivity, good wear and corrosion resistance properties. As some of these systems have unfavorable enthalpy of formation they are synthesized at high pressures. High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) synthesis of Ru₂C and Os₂C, starting from elements, is carried out at pressure ∼ 5 - 8 GPa and temperature ∼ 2000 K. Os₂C is found to have an hardness of ∼ 22 GPa. Also, recently high pressure synthesized IrN₂ is reported to have highest bulk modulus, 428 GPa, for any high pressure synthesized compound. Hence, high pressure synthesis of iridium carbide is an important system to be explored