Hardness boron nitrides

Hard Boron Nitride Films Containing p-BN and y-BN Structures... 

Reviews on the synthesis of sinter materials consisting of p-BN and/or y-BN and their use as machining tools are numerous and have been cited with the respective applications. Variable intergrain bonding additives are contained in polycrystalline hard boron nitride sinters, and it is difficult to decide if a material should be classified as a polycrystalline hard boron nitride sinter, as a sintered boron nitride base ceramic, or as hard metal-bonded dense boron nitride. 

Ceramic materials such as Si3N4 [50] or TiN [51] can be coated with p-BN by plasma-enhanced or sputter chemical vapor deposition (CVD), or diamond coatings (by excited CVD) can be doped with boron upon admixture of B2H6 to the CH4/H2 plasma [52]. See Section 4.1.1.2.3, p. 13, for hard boron nitride coatings. 

For tool manufacture, the hard boron nitride alloy composites have to be bonded to refractory metals or hard steel alloys. Interlayers used for this purpose should have an adapted expansion coefficient and form mixed phases with the alloy-bonded boron nitride and the metallic substrate. It also should withstand the high temperatures developed during metal working. Thus, TiC [88] or Co/Ni [89] are used in these interlayers. On the other hand, the alloy... 

If the p-BN particles are only used on the surface of the substrate, they can be applied either by powder metallurgical processes [92, 93] or by energetically excited chemical vapor deposition, thus producing hard boron nitride layers [95 to 96] see also Section 4.1.1.2.2, p. 6. 

Tools made from polycrystalline p-BN (and y-BN) [63, 64] can be machined by laser irradiation [65]. Dressing of hard boron nitride tools can be done with sintered alumina-metal (Fe, Cu) sticks [66], and burnishing cubic boron nitride sinters can be done against a smooth complementary p-BN surface [76]. On the other hand, AI2O3 grinding wheels can be dressed by P-BN sintered tools [68]. 

By subjecting boron nitride (a white powder) to high pressure and temperature small crystals of a substance harder than diamond, known as borazon, are obtained. This pressure-temperature treatment changes the structure from the original graphite-like layer structure (p. 163) to a diamond-like structure this hard form can withstand temperatures up to 2000 K. 

The isotope boron-10 is used as a control for nuclear reactors, as a shield for nuclear radiation, and in instruments used for detecting neutrons. Boron nitride has remarkable properties and can be used to make a material as hard as diamond. The nitride also behaves like an electrical insulator but conducts heat like a metal. 

Diamond. Diamond [7782 0-3] is the hardest substance known (see Carbon, diamond, natural). It has a Knoop hardness of 78—80 kN/m (8000—8200 kgf/m ). The next hardest substance is cubic boron nitride with a Knoop value of 46 kN/m, and its inventor, Wentorf, beheves that no manufactured material will ever exceed diamond s hardness (17). In 1987 the world production of natural industrial diamonds (4) was about 110 t (1 g = 5 carats). It should be noted that whereas the United States was the leading consumer of industrial diamonds in 1987 (140 t) only 260 kg of natural industrial diamonds were consumed this is the lowest figure in 48 years (4), illustrating the impact that synthetic diamonds have made on the natural diamond abrasive market. 

The greatest use of cubic boron nitride is as an abrasive under the name Bora2on, in the form of small crystals, 1—500 p.m in si2e. Usually these crystals are incorporated in abrasive wheels and used to grind hard ferrous and nickel-based alloys, ranging from high speed steel tools and chilled cast-iron to gas turbine parts. The extreme hardness of the crystals and their resistance to attack by air and hot metal make the wheels very durable, and close tolerances can be maintained on the workpieces. 

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 boron nitride is obtained from hexagonal boron nitride at high pressure and temperature in the presence of lithium nitride as a catalyst. It is almost as hard as diamond and has superior chemical resistance and a much higher oxidation threshold.Efforts to... 

Non-oxide ceramics such as silicon carbide (SiC), silicon nitride (SijN ), and boron nitride (BN) offer a wide variety of unique physical properties such as high hardness and high structural stability under environmental extremes, as well as varied electronic and optical properties. These advantageous properties provide the driving force for intense research efforts directed toward developing new practical applications for these materials. These efforts occur despite the considerable expense often associated with their initial preparation and subsequent transformation into finished products. 

Evolution did not use this element, only in certain plants is it important as a trace element. The element became well-known because of heat-resistant borosilicate glasses. Boranes are chemically interesting as B-H bonds react very specifically. Perborates are used in laundry detergents (Persil). The hardness of cubic boron nitride approaches that of diamond. Amorphous (brown) boron burns very quickly and gives off much heat and is therefore used in solid-propellant rockets and in igniters in airbags. 

D. He, Y. Zhao, L. Daemen, J. Qian, and T. D. Shen, Boron Suboxide As Hard as Cubic Boron Nitride, Appl. Phys. Lett., 81, 643 (2002). 

N. Dubrovinskaia, V. L. Solozhenko, N. Miyajima, V. Dmitriev, O. O. Kurakevych, and L.Dubrovinsky, Superhard Nanocomposite of Dense Polymorphs of Boron Nitride Noncarbon Material has Reached Diamond Hardness , Appl. Phys. Lett., 90,101912 (2007). 

Under high pressure and temperature, boron nitride can be converted to a cubic form. The cubic form of (BN) is known as borazon, and it has a structure similar to that of diamond. Its hardness is similar to that of diamond, and it is stable to higher temperatures. The extreme hardness results from the fact that the B-N bonds possess not only the covalent strength comparable to C-C bonds, but also some ionic stabilization due to the difference in electronegativity between B and N. 

Cubed compound, in PVC siding manufacture, 25 685 Cube lattice, 8 114t Cubic boron nitride, 1 8 4 654 grinding wheels, 1 21 hardness in various scales, l 3t physical properties of, 4 653t Cubic close-packed (CCP) structure, of spinel ferrites, 11 60 Cubic ferrites, 11 55-57 Cubic geometry, for metal coordination numbers, 7 574, 575t. See also Cubic structure Cubic symmetry Cubic silsesquioxanes (CSS), 13 539 Cubic structure, of ferroelectric crystals, 11 94-95, 96 Cubic symmetry, 8 114t Cubitron sol-gel abrasives, 1 7 Cucurbituril inclusion compounds,... 

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. 

Cubic BC2N. Hetero-diamond B C—N compounds have recently received a great interest because of their possible applications as mechanical and optical devices. The similar properties and structures of carbon and boron nitrides (graphite and hexagonal BN, diamond, and cubic BN) suggested the possible synthesis of dense compounds with all the three elements. Such new materials are expected to combine the best properties of diamond (hardness) and of c-BN (thermal stability and chemical inertness). Several low-density hexagonal phases of B,C, and N have been synthesized [534] while with respect to the high-density phases, different authors report contradictory data [535-538], but the final products are probably solid mixtures of c-BN and dispersed diamonds [539]. 

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