BORON-NITRIDE PRECURSORS - A PERSPECTIVE

Research efforts conducted in the Chemistry Division of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on the preparation of polymeric precursors to boro n nitride are reviewed, They evolved from the preparation of powders, which contained significant amounts of residual carbon, derived from t he pyrolysis of aminoborane polymers to relatively pure films produced by chemical vapor deposition using polymeric cyanoborane as a single source, Interesting C/B/N films were produced from the pyrolyses of vo latile borazine derivatives, and a polymeric borazine intermediate pro duced denser boron nitride (BN) compact bodies when used as a binder a s opposed to bulk BN compressed without a binder, The challenges of pr oducing boron nitride fibers have been defined.