Talk:Boron nitride

Disputed

There are several compounds harder than cubic boron nitride, most of which are nanocomposites. lysdexia 04:46, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

In the table of physical properties the Magnetic susceptibility (a dimensionless quantity) is given µemu/g. John r w uk (talk) 12:13, 17 October 2014 (UTC)

Graphite-like, diamond-like

I'd rather call it hexagonal and cubic. Maybe leave graphite-like as a remark, but the 'diamond-like' phase is cubic (contary to tetrahedal bonded diamond). Also in the Material-properties template under appearance the two modifications should be mentioned. --Dschwen 07:16, 12 Jan 2005 (UTC)

"Diamond cubic" is the name of the crystaline structure of most semiconductors, including diamond, BN, and SiC, and Si. Yes, the bonding is tetrahedral; in fact, tetrahedral symmetry is only found in cubic systems (look down the corner of a cube if you don't see the 3-fold axis at first).--Polyparadigm 23:27, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Crystal structure

I find the use of the terms cubic and hexagonal ambiguous when applied to the carbon allotropes. Cubic close packing (ccp) and hexagonal close packing (hcp) are crystal structures derived from the closest packing of spheres to maximise space usage (74%). Diamond is composed of two interpenetrating ccp lattices. Graphite is not a close packed structure. However, graphite is composed of layers of fused hexagonal sheets.

"Ingestion" changes

I noticed a "not hazardous" note next to the "Ingestion" label in the table, and deleted it, assuming this referred to transportation regulations or something else. After a brief search of the web, I was not able to reach a definitive conclusion with regard to safety, as the web pages I looked at seemed to be somewhat contradictory. Perhaps someone with experience and knowledge on the safety of boron nitride can update this appropriately. Does anyone know what the "not hazardous" note refers to?--GregRM 18:53, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

It's chemically inert, at least the diamond- and graphite-like allotropes, so it's non-toxic. The fullerene-like allotrope might be bad for you, though. —Keenan Pepper 19:30, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

If you're really interested, google "boron nitride MSDS". Most of them either say "no effects" or at worst "irritant", which just means it's an abrasive. —Keenan Pepper 19:34, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Comparison with recent borides?

Should we list other ultrahard boride compounds in "See Also"? Apparently Rhenium Diboride and Boron Aluminum Magnesium (BAM) Materials rank highly. Not sure if BAM is the preferred term. Does anyone have a broader perspective? —Ahazred8 07:45, 21 April 2007 (UTC)

h-BN sheets not quite planar?

I made the crystal structure images that appear in this article, but recently I heard that hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN, graphite-like) is not entirely planar, despite most textbooks and all the structural papers I could find (e.g. Pease) saying it is planar.

Does anyone know of a more recent structural determination with pyramidal nitrogens?

Ben (talk) 19:29, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

BN has attracted recently a good deal of attention as being similar to graphene i.e. existing in (almost) two-dimensional structures: Appl. Phys. Lett. 92 (2008) Issue 13, id. 133107.195.96.229.83 (talk) 11:40, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

BN gem?

Why isn't this chemical used as a Diamond_simulant? Since learning about the atomic structure of this in school long ago, I thought it would be really cool to have a boron nitride ring rather than a diamond one. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.243.60.12 (talk) 01:02, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Tables are over the text

Is it my computer or is there something wrong with this site? The text is hidden under the tables and charts. Help!!!69.122.62.231 (talk) 21:32, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

c-BN harder than aggregated diamond nanorod?

On Talk:Aggregated diamond nanorod there is given information that c-BN could possibly be harder than aggregated diamond nanorod, which is considered the hardest substance on earth. Something on this should be mentioned here. __meco (talk) 19:46, 17 January 2010 (UTC)

Sure, when it becomes reliable :-) Seriously, many people are fascinated to find a breaking news, a material harder than diamond, and some of those went as far as Science journal and alike, but none are confirmed, as far as I know. Materialscientist (talk) 00:29, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Recentism

The article is still mainly supported by a collection of recent journal articles, which is unfortunate.--Smokefoot (talk) 12:49, 1 November 2010 (UTC)

Natural occurrence of c-BN, qingsongite?

A recent Science News brief report (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/qingsongite) covered the identification and naming acceptance of natural c-BN, as "qingsongite" (/CHING-song-ite/), found in chromium rich Tibetan rocks. The IMA acceptance apparently happened back in August, with the original discovery cited as "Matzel, J. et al. 2010. Nanosims studies of ∂ 15N and ∂ 13C in nitrides inclusions in coesite from a Tibetan massive cromitite ore. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 74, 12, Suppl. 1, 680 p.; doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2010.04.039". Is this sufficient to change the introductory "Boron nitride is not found in nature" statement, or at least qualify it with an endnote?Kelseymh (talk) 05:14, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

I went bold and added, thanks. Materialscientist (talk) 04:08, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

What's the boiling point???

It's not listed. StainlessSteelScorpion (talk) 03:38, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

and is probably unknown - BN decomposes upon heating, that is, sort of sublimates. See "Thermal stability" section. Materialscientist (talk) 03:44, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

Help with edit?

I added some information (with journal citations) and the change was reverted with the comment "an advert." Any tips as to what I did wrong? The journal links seemed relevant to me and the edits seemed in line with the other areas of the article.Onemoregain (talk) 03:00, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

"BN nanotubes produced by this method became commercially available when BNNT, LLC initiated sales in July 2014" was the revert trigger. See WP:SOAP. There are many ways of getting BN nanotubes. Materialscientist (talk) 03:03, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Ok, thanks. That makes sense. That was the info I found, I didn't know it was wrong. Would the other edits be ok, otherwise? --Onemoregain (talk) 03:07, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Yes, I think so. This is a new way of making BN nanotubes and is in the literature. Without the hype about quality and the commercial reference it's not against WP:SOAP, so I left in the part of it that is not above. SBHarris 03:12, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

Thank you both for your help with this, and sorry for the trouble. If it matters, this is the reference for the BNNT acronym I had added. http://budker.berkeley.edu/Physics141_2013/Thang%20Pham%20-%20Nanotube%20-%20PHYS141A.pdf --Onemoregain (talk) 03:50, 9 December 2014 (UTC)

What electronic devices

Article says h-BN and c-BN can/could be used to make UV-LEDs but no mention of transistors or other devices. Is anyone likely to make any form of transistor with BN - would it have any advantages to make it worth trying ? - Rod57 (talk) 01:40, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Probably not. It is hard to control BN growth at the level of high-quality electronic devices (I mean traditional electronics, not optoelectronics). The specific niche applications of BN are based on its wide band gap; they are UV LEDs, UV lasers and UV photodetectors - all those are feasible and have been fabricated in the lab. One more is high-voltage switches for power stations (diodes and thyristors) where BN should benefit from its high breakdown voltage. Here SiC is a big competitor - it has a lower breakdown voltage, but is much better developed technologically. Another competitor is diamond. Materialscientist (talk) 02:08, 21 December 2015 (UTC)

Knoop hardness

Knoop hardness values for diamond does not agree with values given in the article on knoop hardness Ratel (talk) 21:54, 17 August 2016 (UTC)

What form of BN is the ceramic crucible made of

Under Applications the BNcrucible.jgp image is next to h-BN but there's no text to say what form of BN the crucible is made of, or what it's used for. ... google finds pyrolytic BN crucibles (and hBN crucibles) but this article does not mention pyrolytic BN (PBN) - Rod57 (talk) 11:11, 18 August 2017 (UTC)

Chem Abs Report (why we rely on WP:SECONDARY and WP:TERTIARY)

Here is today's report on "boron nitride" literature from Chemical Abstrats:

• Research Topic "boron nitride"
• references: 65262
• references since 2009: 37443 (>1 report per day)
• reviews since 2009: 565
• top cited reviews:
  • (1) Golberg, D.; Bando, Y.; Huang, Y.; Terao, T.; Mitome, M.; Tang, C.; Zhi, C. Boron Nitride Nanotubes and Nanosheets. ACS Nano 2010, 4, 2979-2993.
  • (2) Ariga, K.; Vinu, A.; Yamauchi, Y.; Ji, Q.; Hill, J. P. Nanoarchitectonics for mesoporous materials. Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 2012, 85, 1-32.
  • (3) Xia, F.; Wang, H.; Xiao, D.; Dubey, M.; Ramasubramaniam, A. Two-dimensional material nanophotonics. Nat. Photonics 2014, 8, 899-907.
  • (4) Colombo, P.; Mera, G.; Riedel, R.; Soraru, G. D. Polymer-derived ceramics: 40 years of research and innovation in advanced ceramics. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 2010, 93, 1805-1837.
  • (5) Novoselov, K. S.; Mishchenko, A.; Carvalho, A.; Castro Neto, A. H. 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures. Science 2016, 353, 461.

--Smokefoot (talk) 12:10, 30 April 2019 (UTC)

Article review

It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed the following:

• There are lots of uncited statements, including entire paragraphs.
• There are two orange banner notices at the top of the page. Are these resolved?
• The lead is too short and does not summarise all major aspects of the article.

Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 23:29, 25 May 2025 (UTC)