MAE researchers focused on discovering properties of synthetic metastable materials

Monday, February 16, 2026

Media Contact: Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | tanner.holubar@okstate.edu

From increased diamond purity to quantum applications, metastable materials represent a multitude of avenues for researchers.    

Metastable materials exist in a temporary state but can undergo significant changes when exposed to high-pressure or high-temperature conditions. An example of this is that graphite is a stable phase of carbon, and when facing high pressures, it can be transformed into a diamond.    

The process for how these materials form and what properties this gives them is the topic of research by Dr. Ritesh Sachan, an associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University.    

Sachan’s prowess in creating thin films of material, as well as aberration-corrected microscopy, has led to his inclusion in a DOE-sponsored multi-university project titled “Synthesis and Crystal Growth of Boron Carbon Nitrogen Metastable Materials.”    

Sachan's team will collaborate with Kansas State University and the University of Nebraska to create metastable phase diamonds to understand the structure at the atomic scale and mechanisms behind their growth in boron, nitrogen and carbon. They will also study the properties these materials possess and what applications they could be used for.    

Replicating the process to create metastable structure such as diamond in ambient conditions is a challenge. When occurring naturally, diamonds face vast amounts of pressure over long periods of time to form. The accelerated rate of synthesizing diamonds results could be more worthwhile than naturally occurring ones due to increasing demands in several applications. They can even show more purity and have the potential to possess properties that natural crystals do not have, which will be discovered as part of this research. 

Discovering the reason for enabling the formation of these crystals is the aim of the project for Sachan and the team.    

“We want to determine the underlying mechanisms to stabilize these phases that don’t exist naturally as the central goal of this project,” Sachan said.    

OSU’s contribution involves two parts: the first is creating thin films forming different phases of carbon, for example graphene and diamond, and boron nitride, for example hexagonal, cubic etc.    

“We can grow the combinatorial films where we can vary the composition of metals that mix with B, N and C within the dimension of the space and lead to forming various phases,” Sachan said. “If you vary the composition of metals within this space, you can create 200 samples in a small specimen in one experiment. This high-throughput approach accelerates the understanding of sample growth and help screening.”     

The team will then examine these materials using an aberration-corrected microscope to study them at the atomic scale.    

“We will look for any defects in the crystal structure and discover why the defects occurred,” Sachan said. “Transmission electron microscopy allows us to do that because we can magnify material millions of times to the atomic level. Then you can really see the atomic structure.”   

Complementary collaboration   

Each university is focused on its own area of expertise, and sharing findings with its collaborators allowing all to benefit from each other’s research.    

KSU will create diamonds and BN crystals and then provide them to Sachan’s team for atomic-scale analysis. NU will perform in-situ studies on these crystals at high resolutions and record the growth microscopically as the process occurs.   

This combined effort will elevate the fundamental understanding of how these synthetically created metastable materials form.    

“If we are successful in synthesizing boron nitrate into metastable phases, there are certain advantages they represent,” Sachan said. “This can be a step toward growing larger crystals that could have more applications for various purposes.”   

Diamonds are crucial in technologies that utilize high voltage and high temperatures, serving as excellent conductors of heat and electricity. This research will be key to developing a fundamental understanding of the expanse of these applications.   

By focusing on an effort to bridge the gap between the properties of metastable materials and how they can be synthesized, this research will expand the fundamental understanding and application of metastable materials.    

It is just one example of how impactful CEAT research can be when it comes to playing a role in the expanded understanding of a scientific concept.