High-temperature superconductivity in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>BH</mml:mi> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:ma
Hydrogen-rich compounds that exhibit high-temperature superconductivity typically require extreme pressures, which severely limits their practical applicability. Recent theoretical predictions of the complex hydride Mg2IrH6 have introduced a new family of M2XH6-type hydrides, highlighting the potential for high-temperature superconductivity at near-ambient pressure. Motivated by this, we have performed high-throughput first-principles investigations of the M2XH6 family (M = IA, IIA, IIIA, IIB metals; X = B, C, N) to identify dynamically stable hydrides and explore their superconducting properties. Eleven boron-based hydrides, M2BH6 (M = Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, Sr, Ba, Sc, Y, La), featuring BH6 octahedral units have been identified. Notably, Li2BH6 is dynamically stable down to 16 GPa and exhibits a superconducting critical temperature of 121.25 K. Electronic structure and phonon analyses indicate that high-frequency hydrogen vibrations from strong B–H covalent bonding, reinforced by light Li atoms, dominate the electron–phonon coupling. In contrast, noble-metal-based Li2XH6 compounds (X = Cu, Ag, Au) exhibit distinct superconducting mechanisms, driven by d electrons at the Fermi level and low-frequency metal vibrations. These findings expand the compositional space of the M2XH6 family and highlight Li2BH6 as a promising candidate for near-ambient-pressure high-Tc superconductivity.
Authors
- Anonymous
Institutions
- Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications (CN)
- Ningbo University (CN)
- China University of Geosciences (CN)
- Luoyang Normal University (CN)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical review. B./Physical review. B
- Published
- 2026-04-06
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/xw5d-vsyg
- Primary Topic
- High-pressure geophysics and materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Henan University
- Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province
- Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province