What’s the hardest natural material on earth? Diamonds of course! It’s been so, for a very long time. But scientists have been studying diamonds to see how they could improve the toughness of diamonds for the past few years and now they’ve just created a rare type of diamond that is harder than the usual diamond.
This diamond is a version of Lonsdaleite, also known as the hexagonal diamond and has been found to occur naturally at the center of some meteorite impact sites in different places in the world. This kind of diamond is special since diamonds are usually made up of carbon in a cubic lattice. Lonsdaleite however, has a hexagonal lattice, and therefore makes it up to 58 percent harder than regular diamonds.
Now, researchers have been able to create a nano-scale version of Lonsdaleite in the laboratory, and they predict that it is even harder than the naturally occurring version of Lonsdaleite! In addition to that, it is so strong that the team suggests that its primary use will be in mining sites, since it will be able to easily cut through solid materials—including regular diamonds.
Source: Tjournal
In 1967, Lonsadeite was discovered in the Canyon Diablo meteorite site. The researchers were able to make it in the lab in the past but they were not that successful. It needs incredible temperatures of around 1,000 degrees Celsius, that’s around 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit to be able to form the diamond.
According to lead researcher Jodie Bradby from the Australian National University, “The hexagonal structure of this diamond’s atoms makes it much harder than regular diamonds, which have a cubic structure. We’ve been able to make it at the nanoscale and this is exciting because often with these materials ‘smaller is stronger’.”
This new material was created by nanoengineering the diamond from scratch using a type of carbon that does not have a set form. This type of carbon is known as amorphous carbon.
The team put this carbon into a device that is called a diamond anvil. The device is made of two diamonds that are opposing each other so as to recreate the high pressures that can be found deep down inside Earth.
Here is the video:
Source: YouTube, ANU TV
By using this device, the team was able to recreate the diamond at temperatures of only 400 degrees Celsius or 752 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s only around half as hot as the methods done in the past. Therefore, this method is a lot cheaper and is more efficient. This makes also the end product much harder.
The team is now putting their new diamonds under further testing to find out exactly how tough it is as compared to existing materials and they are expecting the result of this material to be very hard.
According to Bradby, “This new diamond is not going to be on any engagement rings. You’ll more likely find it on a mining site. Any time you need a super-hard material to cut something, this new diamond has the potential to do it more easily and more quickly.”
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