Chinese scientists create diamonds 40% harder than real ones
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The scientists recreated diamonds that have the structure of lonsdaleite, a rare form of diamond that was previously only found in very small sizes in crater impact sites.
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A lab-grown diamond, left, and a natural diamond are displayed at Bario Neal, a jewelry store, in Philadelphia, Wednesday, February 7, 2024. (AP)
Chinese scientists have created an artificial "super diamond", which is 40% harder than the real thing in an advance that could lead to breakthroughs across several key industries that rely on the material, such as cutting and polishing tools.
Ultra-hard diamonds are known as lonsdaleite and are very rare, being found only in impact craters; the key difference between them and normal diamonds is structural differences, normal diamonds have a cubic structure, while lonsdaleite has a hexagonal crystal structure.
The applications of these lonsdaleites have been "largely unexplored" due to the low purity and minuscule size of most samples obtained.
Previously, the hardest diamonds known have been found only in asteroid and meteoroid impact craters.
Scientists have previously struggled to recreate the structure of lonsdaleite in labs, however, the researchers at Jilin University managed to produce the hexagonal diamonds by heating compressed graphite under controlled conditions.
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