equation of state of boron carbide.

We report the equation of state measurements of BC to 50 GPa and approximately 2500 K in laser-heated diamond anvil cells. We obtain an ambient temperature, third-order Birch-Murnaghan fit to the data that yields a bulk modulus of 221(2) GPa and derivative, (d/d) of 3.3(1). These were used in fits with both a Mie-Grüneisen-Debye model and a temperature-dependent, Birch-Murnaghan equation of state that includes thermal pressure estimated by thermal expansion () and a temperature-dependent bulk modulus (d/d). The ambient pressure thermal expansion coefficient (), Grüneisen () = (/) and volume-dependent Debye temperature, were used as input parameters for these fits and found to be sufficient to describe the data in the whole range of this study. This article is part of the theme issue 'Exploring the length scales, timescales and chemistry of challenging materials (Part 1)'.