By electron and X-ray diffraction we establish that the CrB$_4$ compound discovered over 40 years ago crystallizes in the $oP10$ (emph{Pnnm}) structure, in disagreement with previous experiments but in agreement with a recent first-principles predict
ion. The 3D boron network in the new structure is a distorted version of the rigid carbon $sp^3$ network proposed recently for the high-pressure C$_4$ allotrope. According to our density functional theory calculations and the analysis of the bonding, CrB$_4$ is a potentially superhard material. In fact, the calculated weakest shear and tensile stresses exceed 50 GPa and its Vickers hardness is estimated to be 48 GPa.
We discuss the structural and electronic properties of tetragonal CuO grown on SrTiO3(100) by means of hybrid density functional theory. Our analysis explains the anomalously large Cu-O vertical distance observed in the experiments (~2.7 A) in terms
of a peculiar frustration between two competing local Cu-O environments characterized by different in-plane and out-of-plane bond lengths and Cu electronic populations. The proper inclusion of substrate effects is crucial to understand the tetragonal expansion and to reproduce correctly the measured valence band spectrum for a CuO thickness of 3-3.5 unit cells, in agreement with the experimentally estimated thickness.
Electrical resistivity, specific heat and NMR measurements classify non-centrosymmetric $rm Mo_3Al_2C$ ($beta$-Mn type, space group $P4_132$) as a strong-coupled superconductor with $T_c = 9$~K deviating notably from BCS-like behaviour. The absence o
f a Hebbel-Slichter peak, a power law behaviour of the spin-lattice relaxation rate (from $^{27}$Al NMR), a $T^3$ temperature dependence of the specific heat and a pressure enhanced $T_c$ suggest unconventional superconductivity with a nodal structure of the superconducting gap. Relativistic DFT calculations reveal a splitting of degenerate electronic bands due to the asymmetric spin-orbit coupling, favouring a mix of spin-singlet and spin triplet components in the superconducting condensate, in absence of strong correlations among electrons.
Combining experiments and ab initio models we report on $rm SrPt_4Ge_{12}$ and $rm BaPt_4Ge_{12}$ as members of a novel class of superconducting skutterudites, where Sr or Ba atoms stabilize a framework entirely formed by Ge-atoms. Below $T_c=5.35$ K
, and 5.10 K for $rm BaPt_4Ge_{12}$ and $rm SrPt_4Ge_{12}$, respectively, electron-phonon coupled superconductivity emerges, ascribed to intrinsic features of the Pt-Ge framework, where Ge-$p$ states dominate the electronic structure at the Fermi energy.
