Synthesis and characterization of a shock-synthesized cubic B–C–N solid solution of composition BC_2.5N

Abstract

A cubic BC2.5N solid solution (c-BC2.5N) was synthesized in 18% yield by shock-compression of a hexagonal BC2.5N compound. c-BC2.5N was confirmed to have a diamond structure without a long range order of atomic arrangement. The material is a polycrystal composed of microcrystals of 5–20 nm in size. All constituent atoms are teterahedrally coordinated, giving C—C, C—B, C—N, and B—N bonds, and are homogeneously distributed on the lattice planes rather than showing a full short range order of atomic arrangement.