Need for Hardness Test

• Sliding contacts
• Resistance to penetration

Commonly used Hardness Tests

1. Brinell hardness test with scale range 0–3000

2. Rockwell hardness test with scale range 0–1000
3. Vickers hardness test with scale range 0–3000
4. Knoop hardness test for hardness of microscopic areas
5. Nanoindentation test
 Hardness
The hardness of a material is directly related to its incompressibility,
elasticity and resistance to change in shape.

Ideally superhard materials should have a defect-free, isotropic lattice.

Key factors in the superhard materials classification.

• Bulk moduli,
• Shear moduli,
• Elasticity moduli

A high bulk modulus does not mean a material is hard.

A superhard material is not necessarily "supertough".

The fracture toughness of diamond is about 7–10 MPa·m1/2

 Superhard Materials
A material is said to be superhard when its Vickers hardness
number HV ≥ 40 GPa.

The hardness value of 40 GPa implies that the material under

consideration, when subjected to a force of 40 × 109 N, will create an
indented area of 1 m2.

Requirement of Superhard Materials

• Ever-higher cutting speeds to increase the productivity

• Dry cutting (without using coolant/lubricants) in order to save
the recycling costs of cutting fluids
• Tool materials which can withstand the very severe operating
conditions
• High wear resistance and high red hardness
 Superhard Materials
These materials are of great interest in many industrial areas
including abrasives, polishing and cutting tools and wear-
resistant and protective coatings
Some of the recent superhard materials are the following

• Cubic boron nitride c-BN having HV ≈ 48 GPa

• Natural diamond having HV ≈ 70–100 GPa
• Artificial diamond having HV ≥ 90 GPa
• Superhard graphite
• Osmium dinitride (OsN2) having HV ≈ 90 GPa
• Strong covalent compound fanned by light elements, for example
C3N4, B6O and c–BC2N
• Partially covalent heavy transition metal compounds, for example
RuO2 and OsB2
 Categories and Approaches

Superhard materials can be generally classified into two categories

Intrinsic group -- diamond, cubic boron nitride (c-BN), carbon

nitrides and ternary compounds such as B-N-C.

Extrinsic group -- Nanocrystalline diamond known as aggregated

diamond nanorods.

Two approaches for the development of superhard material

First approach -- directional covalent bonds of diamond → boron, carbon,
nitrogen, and oxygen.
Second approach – incorporation of lighter elements (B, C, N, and O), along
with transition metals having high valence electron densities.
Metals with high bulk moduli but low hardness are coordinated with small
covalent-forming atoms to produce superhard materials.
Combination of transition metals with boron e.g., ReB2, OsB2, and WB4.
 Diamond

Diamond is the hardest known material to date, with a Vickers hardness

in the range of 70–150 GPa.

Diamond demonstrates high thermal conductivity and is electrically

insulating.

Synthetic diamond can exist as a

single, continuous crystal or as small
polycrystals interconnected through
the grain boundaries

The hardness of synthetic diamond

(70–150 GPa) is very dependent on
the relative purity of the crystal itself
Diamond and graphite

Nano-twinned diamond with Vickers hardness values up to 200 GPa

 Cubic boron nitride
Cubic boron nitride is the hardest structure after diamond

Cubic boron nitride adopts a sphalerite

crystal structure
Pure cubic boron nitride is transparent or
slightly amber.

Cubic boron nitride is insoluble in iron, nickel,

and related alloys at high temperatures. Sphalerite BN structure

Because of its stability with heat and metals, c-BN surpasses diamond
in mechanical applications.

c-BN has widespread application as an abrasive, such as on cutting tools

and scratch resistant surfaces

The high cost of c-BN still limits its application

 Metal Borides

Most metal borides are hard; however, a few posses particularly high
hardness (for example, WB4, RuB2, OsB2 and ReB2).

Osmium Diboride

Vickers hardness is 37 GPa

• A common way to synthesize OsB2 is by a

solid-state reaction containing a 2:3
mixture of OsCl3:MgB2.
• MgCl2 product is washed away. Orthorhombic crystal
structure of OsB2
• After washing heating existing osmium
compounds at 1,000 °C for three days
produces pure OsB2 crystalline product.
 TITANIUM DIBORIDE
Titanium Diboride (TiB2) is an extremely hard ceramic which has excellent
heat conductivity, oxidation stability and resistance to mechanical erosion.

• Highest Boride Elastic Modulus

• Highest Boride Fracture Toughness
• Highest Boride Compressive strength
• 2nd highest Boride melting point

• High thermal conductivity Crystal structure of TiB2

• High electrical conductivity

• Difficult to mold due to high melting temperature

• Difficult to sinter due to the strong covalent bonding

9
 Metal Borides

Rhenium Diboride
Rhenium diboride (ReB2) is a refractory compound with hardness
values approaching 36 GPa based on nanoindentation hardness.

The hardness depends on the crystal orientation. The (002) plane

contains the most covalent character and exhibits maximum Vickers
hardness values.

The hardness values depend on the material purity and composition

– the more boron the harder the boride.

Rhenium diboride also has a reported bulk modulus of 383 GPa and
a shear modulus of 273 GPa.