Cubic boron nitride applications

Cubic boron nitride (c-BN) is a different material altogether from h-BN, with a structure similar to that of diamond, which is characterized by extremely high hardness (second to diamond) and high thermal conductivity.As such, it is a material of great interest and a potential competitor to diamond, particularly for cutting and grinding applications. Its characteristics and properties are shown in Table 10.3... 

Cubic Phase of Boron Nitride c-BN. The cubic phase of boron nitride (c-BN) is one of the hardest materials, second only to diamond and with similar crystal structure. It is the first example of a new material theoretically predicted and then synthesized in laboratory. From automated synthesis a microcrystalline phase of cubic boron nitride is recovered at ambient conditions in a metastable state, providing the basic material for a wide range of cutting and grinding applications. Synthetic polycrystalline diamonds and nitrides are principally used as abrasives but in spite of the greater hardness of diamond, its employment as a superabrasive is limited by a relatively low chemical and thermal stability. Cubic boron nitride, on the contrary, has only half the hardness of diamond but an extremely high thermal stability and inertness. 

The c-BN phase was first obtained in 1957 [525] by exposing hexagonal boron nitride phase (h-BN) to high pressures and low temperatures. A pressure of more than 11 GPa is necessary to induce the hexagonal to cubic transformation, and these experimental conditions prevent any practical application for industrial purposes. Subsequently, it has been found that the transition pressure can be reduced to approximately 5 GPa at very high temperature (1300-1800°C) by using catalysts such as alkali metals, alkali metal nitrides, and Fe-Al or Ag-Cd alloys [526-528]. In addition, water, urea, and boric acid have been successfully used for synthesis of cubic boron nitride from hexagonal phase at 5-6 GPa and temperature above 800-1000°C [529]. It has been... 

Bogatyreva G.P., Marinich M.A., Gvyazdovskya V.L., Bazalij G.A. (2003) Prospects for Using Diamonds as Adsorbents Proc. An International Technical Conference on Diamond, Cubic Boron Nitride and their Applications (INTERTECH 2003), 48. 

Ronning C., Felderman H., Hofsass H., Growth, doping and applications of cubic boron nitride thin films, Diamond Relat. Mater., 9 (2000) pp. 1767-1773. 

While plasma-enhanced methods are very usefiil to lower the substrate temperature, the as-deposited films are typically less conformal and often contain more surface impurities than competing methods. In this method, reactive radicals, ions, and atoms/molecules are formed in the gas phase that interact with the relatively low-temperature substrate to generate a film. Some of the more recent applications for plasma CVD include growth of cubic boron nitride (c-BN) thin films. 

Cubic boron nitride (barazon) is manufactured from hexagonal-BN in a high tempcrature/high pressure synthesis. Application ... 

Grinding and polishing is one of the oldest applications for wide band-gap materials primarily owing to the property of hardness that some of these materials possess (e.g., diamond). SiC and cubic boron nitride, in addition to diamond, have found a commercial market in grinding and polishing, primarily for ferromagnetic materials with high carbon solubility. 

The synthesis of diamond and cubic boron nitride has strongly motivated improvements in the development of high-pressure equipment and increased the interest in these materials, which have exceptional properties. Single crystals are required for optical and electronic applications. Consequently, specific crystal-growth processes have been set up under very high-pressure conditions. The principle is similar to that described, at lower pressures, for the preparation of single crystals of a-Si02. 

Although most ceramics are thermal and electrical insulators, some, such as cubic boron nitride, are good conductors of heat, and others, such as rhenium oxide, conduct electricity as well as metals. Indium tin oxide is a transparent ceramic that conducts electricity and is used to make liquid crystal calculator displays. Some ceramics are semiconductors, with conductivities that become enhanced as the temperature increases. For example, silicon carbide, SiC, is used as a semiconductor material in high temperature applications. 

S. Miyake, S. Watanabe, M. Murakawa, R. Kaneko, and T. Miyamoto. A Tribological Study of Cubic Boron Nitride Film. In Y. Tzeng, M. Yoshikawa, M. Murakawa, and A. Feldman, editors. Applications of Diamond Films and Related Materials. Materials Science Monographs, Volume 73. Elsevier, New York, 1991, p. 669. 

Silicon carbide (SiC) is the most widely used nonoxide ceramic. Its major application is in abrasives because of its hardness (surpassed only by diamond, cubic boron nitride, and boron carbide). Silicon carbide does not occur in nature and therefore must be synthesized. It occurs in two crystalline forms the cubic P phase, which is formed in the range 1400-1800°C, and the hexagonal a phase, formed at >2000°C. 

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