Ab initio study of the electronic structure and elastic properties of Al₅C₃N

We investigate the electronic structure, chemical bonding and elastic properties of the hexagonal aluminum carbonitride, Al₅C₃N, by ab initio calculations. Al₅C₃N is a semiconductor with a narrow indirect gap of 0.81 eV. The valence bands below the Fermi level (E_F) originate from the hybridized Al p-C p and Al p-N p states. The calculated bulk and Young's moduli are 201 GPa and 292 GPa, which are slightly lower than those of Ti₃SiC₂. The values of the bulk-to-shear-modulus and bulk-modulus-to-c44 are 1.73 and 1.97, respectively, which are higher than those of Ti₂AlC and Ti2AlN, indicating that Al₅C₃N is a ductile ceramic.