Superhard carbon material could crack diamond
Wednesday, December 7, 2011 - 09:30
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- By applying extreme pressure to compress and flatten carbon nanotubes, scientists have discovered that they can create a new carbon polymer that simulations show is hard enough to crack diamond. The pressure-induced formation process of the new carbon allotrope, called Cco-C8, is similar to the 3D polymerization of the soccer-ball-like buckminsterfullerene, C60, at high pressure. When the carbon nanotube bundle is subjected to further compression, it becomes even more distorted and flattened to produce the Cco-C8 structure.