Single crystals of novel orthorhombic (space group Pnnm) iron tetraboride FeB4 were synthesized at pressures above 8 GPa and high temperatures. Magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements demonstrate bulk superconductivity below 2.9 K. The putative isotope effect on the superconducting critical temperature and the analysis of specific heat data indicate that the superconductivity in FeB4 is likely phonon mediated, which is rare for Fe-based superconductors. The discovered iron tetraboride is highly incompressible and has the nanoindentation hardness of 62(5) GPa; thus, it opens a new class of highly desirable materials combining advanced mechanical properties and superconductivity.

We report crystal structure, electronic structure, and magnetism of manganese tetraboride, MnB 4 , synthesized under high-pressure, high-temperature conditions. In contrast to superconducting FeB 4 and metallic CrB 4 , which are both orthorhombic, MnB 4 features a monoclinic crystal structure. Its lower symmetry originates from a Peierls distortion of the Mn chains. This distortion nearly opens the gap at the Fermi level, but despite the strong dimerization and the proximity of MnB 4 to the insulating state, we find indications for a sizable paramagnetic effective moment of about 1.7 μ B /f.u., ferromagnetic spin correlations, and, even more surprisingly, a prominent electronic contribution to the specific heat. However, no magnetic order has been observed in standard thermodynamic measurements down to 2 K. Altogether, this renders MnB 4 a structurally simple but microscopically enigmatic material; we argue that its properties may be influenced by electronic correlations.

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We report the synthesis of aggregated diamond nanorods (ADNRs) from fullerene C60 at 20(1) GPa and 2200  °C using a multianvil apparatus. Individual diamond nanoroads are of 5–20 nm in diameter and longer than 1μm. The x-ray and measured density of ADNRs is ∼0.2%–0.4% higher than that of usual diamond. The extremely high isothermal bulk modulus KT=491(3)GPa [compare to KT=442(4)GPa of diamond] was obtained by in situ x-ray diffraction study. Thus, ADNRs is the densest among all carbon materials and it has the lowest so far experimentally determined compressibility.