Diamonds are perhaps the strongest known natural material, but researchers have just created strong competition.
By firing a double-sized graphite disk at a wall at 24,000 km / h, scientists have created a hexagonal diamond that is stiffer and stronger than the natural, cubic type.
Hexagonal diamonds, also known as Lonsdaleite diamonds, are a special type of diamond with carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern. The rare material, which is formed when graphite is exposed to extreme heat and stress, as in meteor impact sites, is long stronger than ordinary cubic diamonds.
However, because the hexagonal diamonds found in traction craters contain too many impurities, scientists have never accurately measured their properties.
Related content: Sinister Sparkling Gallery: 13 Mysterious and Cursed Gems
Now, researchers have not only forged the hexagonal diamonds, but also measured their stiffness – the ability to withstand the shape when pressed or stretched – with a combination of sound waves and laser light.
“Diamond is a very unique material,” studied co-author Yogendra Gupta, director of the Washington State University Institute for Shock Physics, said in a statement. “It’s not only the strongest – it has beautiful optical properties and a very high thermal conductivity. Now we have manufactured the hexagonal shape of diamond produced under shock compression experiments, which is significantly stiffer and stronger than ordinary precious diamonds. “
Cubic diamonds usually form more than 150 kilometers below the earth’s surface, under extreme pressures many times greater than the depths of the deep ocean, and temperatures above 2,732 degrees Fahrenheit (1,500 degrees Celsius). But to form hexagonal diamonds, the researchers emulated the impact of a high-energy meteor shower, using gunpowder and compressed air to launch the graphite chips at incredible speeds. When the discs slammed into a wall, the shock waves of the impact quickly transformed the discs into hexagonal diamonds.
To measure the diamonds’ strength and stiffness within a fraction of a second before the minerals were broken into the fracture, the researchers emitted a sound wave and measured how fast it moved with a laser through the hexagonal diamonds. (The sound waves cause the diamond density to fluctuate as it moves through, affecting the length of the laser beam.) The stiffer a material, the faster the sound travels through it.
It is difficult to see if the hexagonal diamonds are harder than the average diamond. Hardness is a measure of how difficult it is to scratch the surface of a material, and the hexagonal diamonds do not exist long enough for scientists to scratch it.
At the moment, scientists have not devised a way to create more long-lived hexagonal diamonds in the laboratory, but if a method is discovered, the researchers expect a variety of applications for them – from more effective drill bits to more popular engagement rings.
“If we could one day manufacture and polish them, I think they would be more popular than cubic diamonds,” Gupta said. If someone says to you, ‘Look, I’ll give you a choice of two diamonds: one is much rarer than the other. “Which one would you choose? ‘
The researchers published their findings in the Journal on March 31 Physical overview B.
Originally published on Live Science.