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Beta carbon nitride

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Beta carbon nitride (β-C₃N₄) is a material predicted to be harder than diamond.^[1]

The material was first proposed in 1985 by Marvin Cohen and Amy Liu. Examining the nature of crystalline bonds they theorised that carbon and nitrogen atoms could form a particularly short and strong bond in a stable crystal lattice in a ratio of 1:1.3. That this material would be harder than diamond on the Mohs scale was first proposed in 1989.

The material has been considered difficult to produce and could not be synthesized for many years. Recently, the production of beta carbon nitride was achieved. For example, nanosized beta carbon nitride crystals and nanorods of this material were prepared by means of an approach involving mechanochemical processing.

References

^ http://www.nature.com/news/2000/000511/full/news000511-1.html

A. Liu and M. Cohen, "Prediction of New Low Compressibility Solids". Science 245, pp. 841-842 (1989)
C. Niu, Y.Z. Lu and C.M. Lieber, "Experimental Realization of the Covalent Solid Carbon Nitride". Science 261, 334 (1993).
J. Martín-Gil, F.J. Martín-Gil, M. Sarikaya, M. Qian, M. José-Yacamán, A. Rubio, "Evidence of a low-compressibility carbon nitride with defect-zincblende structure". J. Appl. Phys 81, pp. 2555-2559 (1997).
L.W. Yin, M.S. Li, Y.X. Liu, J.L. Sui, J.M. Wang, "Synthesis of beta carbon nitride nanosized crystal through mechanochemical reaction". J.Phys.: Condens. Matter 15, pp. 309-314 (2003).
L.W. Yin, Y. Bando, M.S. Li, Y.X. Liu, Y.X. Qi, "Unique Single-Crystalline Beta Carbon Nitride Nanorods". Advanced Materials 15, pp. 1840-1844 (2003)