Controversy about ultrahard nanotwinned cBN

Natalia Dubrovinskaia () and Leonid Dubrovinsky
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Natalia Dubrovinskaia: Material Physics and Technology at Extreme Conditions, Laboratory of Crystallography, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany
Leonid Dubrovinsky: Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany

Nature, 2013, vol. 502, issue 7472, E1-E2

Abstract: Abstract Arising from Y. Tian et al. Nature 493, 385–388 (2013)10.1038/nature11728 Tian et al.1 report synthesis of “nanotwinned” cubic boron nitride (“nt-cBN”). These authors claim that its unprecedented Vickers hardness of 108 GPa is due to nanotwinning, and that hardening of cBN is continuous with decreasing twin thickness down to the smallest size investigated, in contrast to the expected reverse Hall–Petch effect. We demonstrate here that it has been known for tens of years that “nt-cBN” (refs 2–4) hardens owing to a complex of phenomena associated with its microstructure and defects; we also consider that Tian et al.1 provide no proof that the hardness of “nt-cBN” is larger than 85 GPa, which is the previously reported maximum for nanostructured boron nitride2,4. Thus the claim of continuous hardening down to a few nanometres twin thickness is, in our opinion, unjustified. There is a Reply to this Brief Communication Arising by Tian, Y. et al. Nature 502, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12621 (2013).

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/nature12620

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