A new understanding of metastability clears path for next-generation materials
Saturday, November 19, 2016 - 10:01
in Physics & Chemistry
They say diamonds are forever, but diamonds in fact are a metastable form of carbon that will slowly but eventually transform into graphite, another form of carbon. Being able to design and synthesize other long-lived, thermodynamically metastable materials could be a potential gold mine for materials designers, but until now, scientists lacked a rational understanding of them.