The material’s high thermal stability and hardness “suggest its great potential for industrial applications”, scientists wrote in the study.
Chinese scientists have created an artificial “super diamond” much greater in hardness than real ones, an advance that could lead to breakthroughs across several key industries that rely on the material.
They say the findings also provide a framework for graphite-to-diamond conversion under high pressure and temperature, further opening opportunities for fabricating the material to suit applications.
Researchers led by Liu Bingbing and Yao Mingguang from northeastern China’s Jilin University show that HD can be formed from what scientists call a “post-graphite phase” when graphite is compressed under temperature gradients.
“Here we report the synthesis of well-crystallised, nearly pure HD by heating highly compressed graphite, which is applicable to both bulk and nanosized graphitic precursors,” scientists wrote.
