Ultrahard and stable nanostructured cubic boron nitride from hexagonal boron nitride

Cubic boron nitride (cBN), a typical superhard material, has garnered significant interest for both fundamental scientific research and technical applications. Here, nanostructured cBN with high-density nanotwins and stacking faults was synthesized by rapid quenching using hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) as the starting material at a moderate temperature (2200 K) and low pressure (13 GPa). This synthetic nanostructured cBN exhibits high Vickers hardness (78 GPa), high fracture toughness (11.8 MPa·m1/2), and extremely high oxidization temperature (1565 K). We propose that the refined grain structure and excellent mechanical properties of the cBN synthesized in this study is attributed mainly to dislocation slips and (111) mechanical nanotwins that dominate this phase transformation.