title: Fluctuations of tensile strength and hardness of c-BC₂N crystals induced by difference in atomic configuration.
abstract: At the atomistic level, the physical properties of a material are determined by its structure such as atomic arrangements. Here first-principles calculations were performed to investigate the effect of atomic configuration on the tensile strength and Vickers hardness of cubic-BC₂N (c-BC₂N) crystals. Depending on the degree of mixture between diamond and c-BN, the tensile strength of c-BC2N crystals can vary drastically from 27 to 77 GPa. The magnitude of the Vickers hardness fluctuations (~10 GPa) is also comparable to the experimental difference (~14 GPa). Thus, atomic-scale characterization of c-BC₂N crystal structures may unveil the discrepancy of the measured Vickers hardness in experiments, and uncover the obvious differences of tensile strength described in theoretical calculations.
authors: Institute of Materials Engineering, University of Siegen, Siegen 57076, Germany.
authors: Chunqiang
authors: C
authors: Zhuang
authors: Xiaoqing
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: Jijun
authors: J
authors: Zhao
authors: H Abu
authors: HA
authors: Samra
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Jiang