Abstract
The aluminum-magnesium (Al-Mg) aklloys have been proved to be an effective solvent for synthesis of cubic-phase boron nitride (cBN) from hexagonal-phase boron nitride (hBN) at the conditions of high pressures and high temperatures (HP/HT). Various kinds of hBN powders having different crystallinity have been tested for cBN synthesis with Al-Mg solvents. The conversion ratio from hBN to cBN and the shape of synthesized cBN crystals appeared to be affected strongly by chemical composition and added amount of Al-Mg solvents as well as crystallinity of BN powders. As the magnesium content increased in the Al-Mg solvents, the conversion ratio increased and the size of cBN crystals became larger. The crystal facets developed well in the specimens with solvents having high Mg content. It was observed that a hBNlongrightarrowcBN transformation occurred more easily in the specimens having well crystallized hBN powders. Amorphous BN having much $B_2O_3$ impurity exhibited a low threshold temperature for transformation to cBN, which was attributed to crystallization of amorphous BN to well crystallized hBN prior to transformation into cBN with help of $B_2O_3$.