Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2025
07:47
Reverse Microemulsion-mediated Synthesis of Monometallic and Bimetallic Early Transition Metal Carbide and Nitride Nanoparticles
Published on: November 27, 2015
11.0K
Plasmonic high-entropy carbides
Arrigo Calzolari1, Corey Oses2,3, Cormac Toher3,4
1CNR-NANO Research Center S3, Modena, Italy. arrigo.calzolari@nano.cnr.it.
Nature Communications
|October 11, 2022
Summary
Researchers discovered tunable plasmonic properties in high-entropy transition-metal carbides, a new class of multifunctional materials. These ceramics exhibit excellent stability for advanced optical and telecommunication applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Advanced optical and telecommunication applications require multifunctional materials with tunable plasmonic properties that are stable in harsh environments.
- High-entropy transition-metal carbides offer exceptional thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To discover and characterize novel high-entropy transition-metal carbides with tunable plasmonic properties.
- To explore the potential of these materials for advanced optical and telecommunication applications.
Main Methods:
- Computational thermodynamic disorder modeling.
- Time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) characterization.
- Experimental validation on HfTa4C5.
Main Results:
- A metal-to-dielectric transition was identified in the infrared and visible range, exploitable for plasmonics.
- Optical response is tunable from near-IR to visible by altering transition metal components and concentration.
- HfTa4C5 exhibited stable plasmonic properties from room temperature to 1500K.
Conclusions:
- Plasmonic transition-metal high-entropy carbides are proposed as a new class of multifunctional materials.
- Their unique combination of plasmonic activity, high hardness, and thermal stability opens avenues for novel applications.
