2 Avtozavodska St., 04074, Kyiv, Ukraine

Phone/fax: (044) 468 8632;
e-mail: alkon@ism.kiev.ua;
http://www.ism.kiev.ua

The main lines of the Institute’s research are:

– investigations into physico-chemical processes of making monocrystalline, dispersed and film-like superhard materials over a wide range of temperatures and pressures, development of new production technologies for ceramic and composite materials and their products;

– elaboration of scientific principles for developing efficient processes of machining metals and non-metallic materials with superhard materials tools as well as methods and processes of applying superhard materials in the industries.

The following results of international level were obtained at the Institute:

– the mechanism of growing large pure diamond crystals by the temperature gradient method in high-pressure apparatuses was studied; growth parameters of large (up to 7 mm) structurally perfect diamond single crystals having a predetermined defect-and-impurity level were found;

– a radically new material – cubic boron carbonitride with hardness exceeding that of cubic boron nitride (cBN) single crystals by a factor of 1.3 and equal to 75% hardness of diamond – was synthesized for the first time ever;

– AKTM novel composite polycrystalline material was produced by high pressure-high temperature impregnation of diamond micron powder with liquid phase resulting from the interaction between silicon and carbon;

– a new bulk superconducting high-density nanostructural material on the basis of MgB2-Ta was synthesized. The material has high mechanical characteristics and can be used in cryogenic engineering.

For industrial use, promotion of economy and for joint upgrading, the Institute proposes the following:

– processes of obtaining materials with improved physical-and-mechanical properties and their products;

– cubic boron nitride-based tool and structural composite superhard materials in the form of plates up to 35 mm in diameter (kiborit-2, kiborit-3);

– cubic boron nitride-based heterostructural composite (heteronit) for machining high-hardness alloys;

– AKTM diamond-based composite thermostable material to be used in mining tools;

– elite diamond powders with increased uniformity of the grain strength to be used in tools operating under high thermodynamic loads;

– high-plasticity hard alloys for drilling tools, dies, molds, asphalt-cutting tools;

– nonporous hard alloys obtained by compression sintering in a neutral atmosphere;

– hard-alloy products with gradient structure produced by the treatment of sintered hard alloys with metal melts.