Hard Materials Synthesis: Diamond, BN, BCN, etc.

This chapter describes classical ways to synthesize hard materials by shock compression. Hard materials are high-pressure phases, and their stability fields are located in high pressure and high-temperature regions. There is a volume limitation for static high-pressure vessels to synthesize hard materials at the required high pressures. Shock compression can handle a large amount of sample and can easily reach higher pressures. There have been many research activities to develop optimized conditions using shock compression techniques for hard materials represented in the C–B–N system. This chapter is focused on these systems.