Enhanced strength of nano-polycrystalline diamond by introducing boron carbide interlayers at the grain boundaries.

Polycrystalline diamond with high mechanical properties and excellent thermal stability plays an important role in industry and materials science. However, the increased inherent brittle strength with the increase of hardness has severely limited its further widespread application. In this work, we produced well-sintered nano-polycrystalline (np) diamond by directly sintering fine diamond powders with the boron carbide (BC) additive at high pressure and high temperatures.