New diamond harder than ring bling
An international team has created a harder-than-diamond Lonsdaleite diamond - usually found at the site of meteoric impacts. Unlike cubic diamonds, the hexagonal creation is more likely to be used in manufacturing.
We realised it was something very, very special.
The University of Sydney has collaborated in an international project including the Australian National University and RMIT to make a diamond predicted to be harder than a jeweller鈥檚 diamond and may be useful for cutting through ultra-solid materials on mining sites.聽聽
The team, which included the University of Sydney鈥檚 Professor David McKenzie from the Applied Physics Laboratory and ANU PhD student Thomas Shiell, made nano-sized Lonsdaleite.
Lonsdaleite is a hexagonal diamond only found in nature at the site of meteorite impacts such as Canyon Diablo in the United States.
The researchers were able to make the Lonsdaleite in a diamond anvil at 400 degrees Celsius - halving the temperature at which it can be formed in a laboratory. The findings are published in the聽狈补迟耻谤别听journal鈥檚 鈥溾��.
Corresponding author from the University of Sydney鈥檚聽, Professor David McKenzie, said as part of the research he had been doing the night shift in a United States laboratory聽when he noticed a little shoulder on the side of a peak.
A diamond in the anvil the scientists used to make the nano-sized Lonsdaleite. Image: Jamie Kidston, ANU.
聽鈥淚t didn鈥檛 mean all that much until we examined it later on in Melbourne and in Canberra 鈥� and we realised that it was something very, very different,鈥� Professor McKenzie said.
Associate Professor Jodie Bradby from ANU said the hexagonal structure of the diamond鈥檚 atoms made it much harder than regular diamonds, which have a cubic structure.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been able to make it at the nanoscale and this is exciting because often with these materials 鈥榮maller is stronger鈥�,鈥� Associate Professor Bradby said.
Co-researcher Professor Dougal McCulloch from RMIT said the collaboration of world-leading experts in the field was essential to the project鈥檚 success and 鈥渢he team utilised state-of-the-art instrumentation鈥�, he said.
