This project, funded by an ARC Discovery project 2024-26) aims to develop new hybrid boron nitride (BN) materials with novel electronic, mechanical, and thermal properties by exploiting the structural transition from sp2 bonding (hexagonal) to sp3 bonding (wurtzite). The work is joint with the Nanotechnology group at the Institute for Frontier Materials at Deakin University. Both static high-pressure pressing technique and dynamic high-pressure ball milling method will be used to achieve the phase transformation. The ANU team will focus on static loading. Revealing the evolution of B and N bonding at high pressures opens a new materials research area in understanding the pressure or mechanical force-induced polymerization, metallization, superconductivity, semiconductivity and superhardness of BN compounds 

This project can be tailored to suit students at levels from undergraduate/short projects to honours and PhD. 

No specific background except an interest in experimental physics. Suits someone with practical problem-solving abilities.