Artificial diamonds cut everything in nature

A team of researchers in Australia makes rare diamonds even harder than real diamonds in nature.

Australian researchers create a nanoscale version of the lab's Lonsdaleite diamond, which is said to be stiffer than the original in nature, according to a study published today in the journal Science Reports.

The Lonsdaleite diamonds are often found in the centers of meteorite craters that collide with Earth. This is especially because most diamonds are made up of carbon in the cube, while the Lonsdaleite diamond has a hexagonal lattice, making it 58 percent harder than natural diamonds, according to Science. Alert.

Researchers say the new diamond is so hard that it can cut other superhuman materials, including conventional diamonds.

" The hexagonal mass structure of these diamond molecules makes it harder than common cube-shaped diamonds , " says Jodie Bradby, a research fellow at the Australian National University. "We can make it in nanoscale, which is really interesting because smaller materials are harder."

The research team created new materials ranging from carbon nanotechnology no specific shape called amorphous carbon.

The Lonsdaleite diamond was first discovered at the mouth of the Canyon Diablo crash in 1967. The researchers attempted to create it in the previous lab but failed. This type of diamond is formed only at very high temperatures, about 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Bradby and her team used another method. They put the carbon into a device called a diamond anvil , made of two diamonds placed face-to-face to create a high-pressure environment like deep in the heart of the Earth. Thanks to this device, they can create diamonds at a temperature of just 400 degrees Celsius, helping to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the production process.

Researchers need to do more experiments to find out exactly how much newer diamonds are stiffer than the current ones.