Explosive Shock Synthesis of Wurtzite Type Boron Nitride

Reported in the paper are techniques of wurtzite type boron nitride (wBN) synthesis from graphite type BN (gBN) by means of shock compressions created via explosive detonation. Recovered samples after shock processing are treated with molten alkalis and hydrochloric acid. Despite that the domestic gBN materials we used are far inferior, both in the crystallinities and particle sizes, to those used in foreign countries for the purpose of shock synthesis of wBN, the yield of our wBN reaches 11 to 12 g per shot, with a convertion ratio over 50%; X-ray diffraction and x-ray fluorescence spectrometry analyses reveal that the total impurity content of this chemically extracted wurtzite type boron nitride product is less than 0.5%. Four different starting gBN from different manufacturers were used in the experiments to synthesis wBN under the same conditions of shock compressions. It is found that the yield of wBN is closely related to the crystallinity of the starting gBN materials. Specific area measurements and XRD analysis indicate that our wBN is a polycrystal super-fine powder material with average particle size of 0.1 m, which consists of many primary crystallites of 17.5 nm in dimension. Thermal stability of our wBN powder is characterized by the emergence of an exothermic peak in the atmospheric gas condition from DTA analysis. Initial temperature of this exothermic reaction is about 1 055 K and peak temperature 1 238 K.