The structure of CBN is the same as that of diamond, which is composed of two face centered cubic lattices staggered by 1 / 4 length along the cube diagonal. The difference between the two is that the atoms in the two FCC lattices in diamond structure are the same kind of atoms, while the atoms in the two FCC lattices in the CBN structure are two different atoms.

Like diamond, CBN is a multifunctional material with many superior properties. Because the structure of CBN is similar to that of diamond, many physical properties of CBN are very similar to diamond, such as high hardness (second only to diamond), wide band gap, high resistivity, high thermal stability and chemical stability, etc., which makes CBN have a wide range of applications.

On the other hand, some properties of CBN are better than those of diamond

(1) The oxidation resistance of CBN is higher than that of diamond.

(2) There is a high inertness between CBN and Fe group elements, and there is no chip sticking during the processing of ferroalloys. This advantage makes cubic boron nitride have obvious advantages when used as high-speed cutting tools.

(3) In the development of electronic and optoelectronic devices, cubic boron nitride also has the incomparable advantages of diamond: by controlling the doping type, cubic boron nitride can become both n-type semiconductor and p-type semiconductor, but diamond can only be doped into n-type semiconductor.

(4) Cubic boron nitride is also an ideal substrate material for the growth of some semiconductors, which can improve the performance of short wavelength light-emitting devices and meet the needs of the semiconductor optoelectronic device industry.