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The resulting diamond is stable at temperatures up to nearly 1000°C – 200°C higher than natural gems.
Chinese researchers from Yanshan University have created a synthetic diamond harder than its natural counterpart and able to withstand even hotter temperatures.
The team, led by Yongjun Tian, say the new form of diamond could be used to make superior cutting or crushing tools, capable of operate under very extreme conditions.
The group made the diamond by heating carbon onions —concentric fullerene spheres nested within one another— at 2000°C and 25GPa, hundreds of thousands of times the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere. The resulting diamond has an extremely high hardness of around 200GPa and is stable at temperatures up to nearly 1000°C – 200°C higher than natural diamond.
“The scientific community has dreamt of synthesising novel materials harder than natural diamond for decades,” says Tian in an article published this week in the journal Nature.
The usual approach, he adds, is to try and create smaller and smaller grains within the material’s microstructure.
Because of its superior features, the synthetic diamond diamond can be use to manufacture industrial tools or scientific instruments —such as diamond anvil cells— that work at high temperatures.
The team is currently working on reducing the pressure needed to make each diamond by using finer carbon onions, so that they can be more easily manufactured.
Image by Ken Tannenbaum
6 Comments
Titus
wow
Wayne Waters
This might not be good news for the Diamond Mining Companies!
Larry
“……to make each diamond by using finer carbon onions.” Brilliant article !
George
That will be the end of the Diamond Companies, and is good so! Who needs so many diamonds… and keeping the price artificially… Brilliant Chinese!
David Ichelson
Every significant step forward in diamond synthesis has evoked exactly the same comments, word for word, since the GE lab work in the 1940’s. However genius this harder than diamond diamond may be, it will not destabilize any market anywhere. We may never even have access to the literature of the science, let alone access to the product if it exists. Technical application of diamond is the true value of the material, and if it is harder,then it will reflect more light and have sharper edges than natural diamond. I want one.
terrence simms
Re-inventing the wheel again !!!! .
Seems to be another ”made in China” copy-cat product story considering Synthetic Diamonds have been manufactured since the mid 1900s and generally used for industrial grade purposes due to them being 15% – 75% more harder than natural diamonds.
There are currently several methods used to manufacture synthetic diamonds and the first man made ”Gem quality” synthetic diamond was first produced in the early 1980s.
What color diamond would you like ?