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Title: Diamond-cBN alloy: A universal cutting material

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4929728· OSTI ID:1332346
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (United States); Sichuan Univ., Chengdu (China)
  2. Sichuan Univ., Chengdu (China)
  3. Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)

Diamond and cubic boron nitride (cBN) as conventional superhard materials have found widespread industrial applications, but both have inherent limitations. Diamond is not suitable for high-speed cutting of ferrous materials due to its poor chemical inertness, while cBN is only about half as hard as diamond. Because of their affinity in structural lattices and covalent bonding character, diamond and cBN could form alloys that can potentially fill the performance gap. However, the idea has never been demonstrated because samples obtained in the previous studies were too small to be tested for their practical performance. Here, we report the synthesis and characterization of transparent bulk diamond-cBN alloy compacts whose diameters (3 mm) are sufficiently large for them to be processed into cutting tools. The testing results show that the diamond-cBN alloy has superior chemical inertness over polycrystalline diamond and higher hardness than single crystal cBN. In conclusion, high-speed cutting tests on hardened steel and granite suggest that diamond-cBN alloy is indeed a universal cutting material.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0001982
OSTI ID:
1332346
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 10; ISSN 0003-6951
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 31 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (3)

Detwinning Mechanism for Nanotwinned Cubic Boron Nitride with Unprecedented Strength: A First-Principles Study journal August 2019
Experimental study on the pressure-generation efficiency and pressure-seal mechanism for large volume cubic press journal July 2018
Ultrahard stitching of nanotwinned diamond and cubic boron nitride in C2-BN composite journal July 2016

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