harder than diamond tagged posts

The diamond in an anvil the scientists used to make nano-sized Lonsdaleite. Credit: Jamie Kidston, ANU

The Australian National University has led an international project to make a diamond that’s predicted to be harder than a jeweller’s diamond and useful for cutting through ultra-solid materials on mining sites. ANU A/Prof Jodie Bradby said her team and experts from RMIT, University of Sydney and United States — made nano-sized Lonsdaleite, a hexagonal diamond only found in nature at the site of meteorite impacts such as Canyon Diablo in the US.

“This new diamond is not going to be on any engagement rings. You’ll more likely find it on a mining site – but I still think that diamonds are a scientist’s best friend...

This is a scanning electron microscopy image of microdiamonds made using the new technique.

Q-carbon is distinct from known phases of graphite and diamond. They have also developed a technique for using Q-carbon to make diamond-related structures at room temperature and at ambient atmospheric pressure in air. “We’ve now created a third solid phase of carbon,” says Prof. Jay Narayan. “The only place it may be found in the natural world would be possibly in the core of some planets.”

Q-carbon has some unusual characteristics
~It is ferromagnetic -other solid forms of carbon are not.
“We didn’t even think that was possible,” Narayan says.
~It is harder than diamond, and glows when exposed to even low levels of energy.
~”Q-carbon’s strength and low work-function – its willingness to release el...