A new form of diamond created in the lab is just as strong as a natural diamond.
November of 2021.
By Leah Crane.
Mineral rocks are cloudy.
Cheshirskiy Kot.
A new type of diamond has been created. Its unique structure gives it similar properties to natural diamonds, but it is more stable under extreme heat, so it may be useful in tools that operate in hot conditions.
There are two main types of structure in diamonds and other materials, in which all of the atoms are neatly arranged in repeating arrangements, and in which the structure is mostly disorganised. A diamond with a structure between the two types was made for the first time by Howard Sheng and his colleagues.
The new material is made up of small structures called paracrystallites that are made of a few carbon atoms. There is no order to the way the paracrystallites are arranged. The diamond we know is different.
A diamond from Earth's mantle has a new mineral inside it.
He and his colleagues created the material by crushing a type of carbon molecule called buckminsterfullerene. The buckyballs were made of paracrystalline diamond at temperatures in excess of 1200C and at pressures of around 30 gigapascals.
We took it for granted that there were only two types of structures, but there is more to it than that. He hopes to find other new materials that have similar paracrystalline states.
The paracrystalline diamonds are more stable than other types of diamond. They are just as hard as natural diamonds, so could be used in saws and other industrial tools that need to function for a long time at high temperatures.
Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04122-w.
The pressure used to create the diamond was changed.
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