Synthesis of cubic boron nitride from rhombohedral form under high static pressure

Abstract

The cubic, zincblende-type boron nitride (z-BN) has been synthesized from the rhombohedral form (r-BN) under high static pressures greater than 6 GPa without any planned addition of catalysts. The process of forming z-BN has been delineated from isobaric and isothermal series of data. At 6GPa, r-BN begins conversion to the graphite-type form (g-BN) upon heating to 600 °C. This conversion terminates at 1200 °C forming single-phase g-BN, which in turn transforms into z-BN at temperatures higher than 1300 °C. The appearance of z-BN occurs at lower temperatures when the pressure is raised to 7 or 8 GPa. At pressures beyond 10 GPa the wurtzite-type form (w-BN) is observed between 400 and 1200 °C, whereas z-BN is formed above 1000 °C. The boundary of pressure-temperature conditions for synthesizing z-BN from r-BN runs through 6GPa and 1300 °C, and is located near to the lowest bound hitherto known for non-catalytic z-BN synthesis from g-BN.