Melting Points of Metal Oxides

ABSTRACT Based on the idea that melting is intrinsically a collective bond‐breaking process, a semi‐empirical method for predicting the melting points of metal oxides is presented. Three bond‐breaking parameters—bond length, bond density, and bond ionicity—are found to be critical predictors for evaluating the melting points. Besides the simple oxides, the applicability of this physically transparent approach is further validated for complex cubic oxides, yielding melting points in high consistency with our measurements and previous experimental reports. Our work provides mechanistic insights into the relationship between microscopic bond‐breaking characteristics and the macroscopic melting behaviors and opens a practical route for designing oxides with melting points exceeding 3273 K for next‐generation thermal protection systems.