Borides are among the hardest and most heat-resistant substances on the planet,but their Achilles' Heel, like so many materials', or is that they oxidize at high temperatures. Oxidation is the chemical reaction commonly known as corrosion or rusting—it can sign the end for a fabric's structural integrity. But researchers from Drexel University,Linkoping University in Sweden and Imperial College London have produced an aluminum-layered boride whose unique behavior at high temperatures keeps it one step ahead of nature's behind march toward high- temperature chemical degradation.
Source: phys.org