Discover the secret of the planet's hardest material, harder than diamond

Russian scientists have designed a new model for fullerene-based crystal materials with extremely high mechanical stiffness, more than diamond.

This finding provides the ability to help us better understand fullerene materials , promote research in this area and can help synthesize superhard materials for the processing industry.

A team of researchers from the Russian National University of Science and Technology (MISiS), the New and Ultra-Hard Carbon Material Technology Institute in the Russian capital, and several Russian universities and research institutes have discovered How to make fullerite crystals turn into super hard materials, several times harder than diamond. This group also offers a model for this particular material structure.

The study on this issue has been published in Carbon magazine.

Fullerite is a structured molecular crystal, with a "trellis" fullerene molecules.

Fullerene is a new kind of molecule in which atoms form an empty sphere. The carbon sphere in fullerite can be distributed in many different patterns, although the hardness of this material depends mainly on the correct way of connecting fullerene.

Fullerite model in diamonds.(Image source: Sputnik).

Researchers around the world have created polymerization models (in the process of creating polymers, they attach a low molecular substance to the active center of a polymer molecule), in order to convert the fullerene into fullerite . In the past it was not clear why the materials were made super hard as discovered in some tests. Russian scientists have succeeded in explaining this process.

Russian researchers have encompassed a fullerite crystal structure with single-crystal diamonds, and studied the compound created therein.

The hypothesis given by the Russian researchers is that the compression of high-temperature fullerite converts some fullerene into polycrystalline diamonds, while another part remains compressed (SH phase).

According to calculations by Russian scientists, the fullerite inside the diamond must be compressed, because the compression enhances its elasticity and mechanics, while the diamond shell keeps the fullerite in place and preserves the properties. its.

Dr. Physics and Mathematics Dr. Pavel Sorokin said: "Unlike diamond, fullerite is not a single crystal material. Under normal conditions, this material is completely soft. However in the process of 3D polymerization. Under high pressure, its compressive strength and stiffness increase significantly, and this material becomes super hard Fullerite can then increase the compressive strength of the diamond surface to 310 GPa. These characteristics are due to the compression state of fullerite ".

Dr. Sorokin leads the Project of Theoretical Materials Science on Nano Structures Infrastructure at the MISiS Laboratory on Inorganic Nano Materials. He is also in charge of the laboratory at Moscow's New and Superhard Carbon Materials Technology Institute.

Researchers believe they can quickly solve the mystery of super hard materials. The results obtained by computer modeling can help create more durable fullerite-based variants, and produce them in large quantities sufficient for the need to use and sufficient to replace diamonds. making the key carbon materials used in the processing industry today.