Letter abstract
Nature Materials 3, 111 - 114 (2004)
doi:10.1038/nmat1060
Subject Category: Design synthesis and processing
The formation of sp3 bonding in compressed BN
Yue Meng1,2, Ho-kwang Mao2, Peter J. Eng3, Thomas P. Trainor3,5, Matthew Newville3, Michael Y. Hu1,2, Chichang Kao4, Jinfu Shu2, Daniel Hausermann1,2 and Russell J. Hemley2
Attributed to their specific atomic bonding, the soft, graphite-like, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) and its superhard, diamond-like, cubic polymorph (c-BN) are important technological materials with a wide range of applications1. At high pressure and temperature, h-BN can directly transform to a hexagonal close-packed polymorph (w-BN)2 that can be partially quenched after releasing pressure. Previous theoretical calculations3, 4, 5 and experimental measurements (primarily on quenched samples)6, 7, 8, 9 provided substantial information on the transition, but left unsettled questions due to the lack of in situ characterization at high pressures. Using inelastic X-ray scattering to probe the boron and nitrogen near K-edge spectroscopy, here we report the first observation of the conversion process of boron and nitrogen sp2- and p-bonding to sp3 and the directional nature of the sp3 bonding. In combination with in situ X-ray diffraction probe, we have further clarified the structure transformation mechanism. The present archetypal example opens two enormous, element-specific, research areas on high-pressure bonding evolutions of boron and nitrogen; each of the two elements and their respective compounds have displayed a wealth of intriguing pressure-induced phenomena10 that result from bonding changes, including metallization11, 12, superconductivity13, 14, semiconductivity15, polymerization16 and superhardness2, 17, 18.
- HPCAT, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA
- Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington DC 20015, USA
- GSECARS, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60439, USA
- National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA
- Present address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA
Correspondence to: Yue Meng1,2 e-mail: ymeng@hpcat.aps.anl.gov
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
RESEARCH
Probing of bonding changes in B 2 O 3 glasses at high pressure with inelastic X-ray scatteringNature Materials Article (01 Nov 2005)
Epitaxy of cubic boron nitride on (001)-oriented diamondNature Materials Letter (01 May 2003)
Direct-bandgap properties and evidence for ultraviolet lasing of hexagonal boron nitride single crystalNature Materials Article (01 Jun 2004)
Transparent dense sodiumNature Letters to Editor (12 Mar 2009)
Alternating sequence of ring and chain structures in sulphur at high pressure and temperatureNature Materials Letter (01 Jul 2005)
See all 10 matches for Research
