Open Access Article
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High-Tc AgxBC and CuxBC superconductors accessible via topochemical reactions
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Daviti Gochitashvili , Charlsey R Tomassetti , E. R. Margine and Alexey Kolmogorov
First published on 22nd July 2025
Abstract
Hole-doping of covalent materials has long served as a blueprint for designing conventional high-Tc superconductors, but thermodynamic constraints severely limit the space of realizable compounds. Our ab initio results indicate that metastable AgxBC and CuxBC phases can be accessed via standard topochemical ion exchange reactions starting from LixBC precursors. Unlike all known stoichiometric layered metal borocarbides, the predicted AgBC and CuBC derivatives, comprising honeycomb layers bridged by dumbbells, are metallic rather than semiconducting. Anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg analysis reveals that the intrinsically hole-doped AgBC possesses a unique combination of electronic and vibrational features to exhibit two-gap superconductivity above 50 K.