In May 2016, materials researchers at North Carolina State University developed a new technique to deposit diamond on the surface of cubic boron nitride (C-BN), combining it into a new single-crystal structure.
The material can be used to make high-power equipment, such as the solid-state transformers needed to create the next generation of smart grids; it can also be used to make tools, high-speed machining and deep-sea drilling equipment.
C-BN is a type of boron nitride (BN) with a cubic crystal structure. It has several advantages: C-BN has a high band gap, which makes it very attractive for high-power devices; C-BN can be "doped" to have positive and negative charge layers, which Meaning it can be used to make transistors; when exposed to oxygen, a stable oxide layer forms on its surface, making it stable at high temperatures.