Synthesis and characterization of a shock-synthesized cubic B-C-N solid solution of composition BC2.5N

A cubic BC2.5N solid solution (c-BC2.5N) was synthesized in 18% yield by shock-compression of a hexagonal BC2.5N compound. c-BC2.5N was confirmed to have a diamond structure without a long range order of atomic arrangement. The material is a polycrystal composed of microcrystals of 5-20 nm in size. All constituent atoms are teterahedrally coordinated, giving C-C, C-B, C-N, and B-N bonds, and are homogeneously distributed on the lattice planes rather than showing a full short range order of atomic arrangement.