Explosive Shock Synthesis and Characterization of a B-C-N Heterodiamond

Abstract

We first synthesized a new carbon hard material, a B-C-N heterodiamond of composition BC_{2. 5}N, using an advanced explosive shock compression technique combining extremely high pressure (∼50 GPa), high temperature (3000-10000°C), rapid reaction (∼μs), and rapid quenching. The heterodiamond is a polycrystalline material stuck with microcrystallites of 10 nm in average size. The constituent atoms are all tetrahedrally coordinated to give C-C, C-B, C-N, and B-N bonds. The material has the excellent thermal resistance and bulk modulus in comparison with diamond and cubic BN.