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Updated: Jul 21, 2025

Probe Type II Band Alignment in One-Dimensional Van Der Waals Heterostructures Using First-Principles Calculations
Published on: October 12, 2019
Phase Stability of Hexagonal/Cubic Boron Nitride Nanocomposites
Abhijit Biswas1, Rui Xu1, Joyce Christiansen-Salameh2
1Department of Materials Science and Nanoengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
Abstract:
Boron nitride (BN) is an exceptional material, and among its polymorphs, two-dimensional (2D) hexagonal and three-dimensional (3D) cubic BN (h-BN and c-BN) phases are most common. The phase stability regimes of these BN phases are still under debate, and phase transformations of h-BN/c-BN remain a topic of interest. Here, we investigate the phase stability of 2D/3D h-BN/c-BN nanocomposites and show that the coexistence of two phases can lead to strong nonlinear optical properties and low thermal conductivity at room temperature. Furthermore, spark-plasma sintering of the nanocomposite shows complete phase transformation to 2D h-BN with improved crystalline quality, where 3D c-BN possibly governs the nucleation and growth kinetics. Our demonstration might be insightful in phase engineering of BN polymorph-based nanocomposites with desirable properties for optoelectronics and thermal energy management applications.
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