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Letter

Nature Materials 3, 111–114 (1 February 2004) | doi:10.1038/nmat1060

The formation of sp3 bonding in compressed BN

Yue Meng , Ho-kwang Mao , Peter J. Eng , Thomas P. Trainor , Matthew Newville , Michael Y. Hu , Chichang Kao , Jinfu Shu , Daniel Hausermann & Russell J. Hemley

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 applications. At high pressure and temperature, h-BN can directly transform to a hexagonal close-packed polymorph (w-BN) that can be partially quenched after releasing pressure.