Creation of nanostuctures by extreme conditions: high-pressure synthesis of ultrahard nanocrystalline cubic boron nitride.

Solozhenko, Vladimir L; Kurakevych, Oleksandr O; Le Godec, Yann · Adv Mater · 2012

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The synthesis of high-purity bulk nanostructured cubic boron nitride (cBN) at 20 GPa and 1770 K by direct phase transformation of graphite-like BN with an "ideal random layer" structure is reported. The two-times increase of hardness of nano-cBN (H(V) = 85 GPa) with respect to conventional polycrystalline cBN (H(V) ∼ 45 GPa) is evidently a result of nanosize effects.

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