
Scientists create matter that can dent diamonds - hypnocode
http://phys.org/wire-news/106597047/scientists-create-new-form-of-matter-that-can-dent-diamonds.html
======
tokenadult
Let's see what the actual journal article says.

[http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6096/825.abstract?sid=...](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6096/825.abstract?sid=3a702736-97a6-49eb-9c8f-c13b229a2350)

Long-Range Ordered Carbon Clusters: A Crystalline Material with Amorphous
Building Blocks Lin Wang, Bingbing Liu, Hui Li, Wenge Yang, Yang Ding,
Stanislav V. Sinogeikin, Yue Meng, Zhenxian Liu, Xiao Cheng Zeng, and Wendy L.
Mao Science 17 August 2012: 337 (6096), 825-828. [DOI:10.1126/science.1220522]

The Science editors also solicited a commentary

<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/337/6096/812.summary>

on the article.

AFTER EDIT:

As I read through the full-text article, it seems that the kind of nanoscale
observations being reported in the article might be consistent with the "new"
material simply being local, small-scale diamonds (the substrate material was
carbon molecules, after all, before they were subjected to high pressure),
being "as incompressible as diamond," as reported, for the unremarkable reason
that it is diamond. But I will defer to someone who is more knowledgeable than
I in materials science to see what other interpretation of the published
article might make more sense.

~~~
blix
Materials Scientist here.

There are no small-scale diamonds present in the material. On the small scale,
the material is a carbon glass (an unordered, or amorphous solid), distinct
from diamond, which is an ordered crystal. Typically, high density glasses are
stronger than crystals made from the same elements, so the strength of the
material isn't particularly surprising, rather it's the processing of the new
material that is novel.

It's also worth noting that this isn't even the first carbon-based material
stronger than diamond. Lonsdaleite is a closely related structure that is
significantly stronger. It is much less common, however, naturally occurring
only in meteorites.

~~~
hypnocode
Any idea as to which one is actually harder, the new material, or Lonsdaleite?
I see from this journal that Lonsdaleite has 58% higher indentation strength
than diamond: <http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v102/i5/e055503> but I couldn't
find figures for the new material.

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dhx
Diamond is only the hardest known _naturally occurring_ material.

For the hardest known material, take a look at this paper from 2005:
<http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005ApPhL..87h3106D>

Or the Wikipedia article for a more general treatment:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregated_diamond_nanorod>

~~~
gliese1337
Not even that, quite. There are two known naturally occurring minerals that
are harder than diamond: wurtzite boron nitride, and lonsdaleite (another
carbon allotrope). They just don't occur in very large quantities.

Ref: [http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16610-diamond-no-
longe...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16610-diamond-no-longer-
natures-hardest-material.html)

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alecdibble
Actually, the title isn't wrong, it's just misleading. When you read "new form
of matter", your first thought was probably liquid, gas, solid, plasma,
(something new here?). However, those refer to the "state" or "phase" of
matter.

Form: the shape of a thing or person.

Basically, they have "formed" a new type of matter, which is simply the way in
which the atoms are arranged in thermodynamic equilibrium. They are not
referring to discovering a new "state" or "phase".

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ChuckMcM
Note, not a new form of matter, yet another form of carbon (of which there are
bazillions) Cool result though.

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SoftwareMaven
From the paper's abstract:

 _Solid-state materials can be categorized by their structures into
crystalline (having periodic translation symmetry), amorphous (no periodic and
orientational symmetry), and quasi-crystalline (having orientational but not
periodic translation symmetry) phases. Hybridization of crystalline and
amorphous structures at the atomic level has not been experimentally observed.
We report the discovery of a long-range ordered material constructed from
units of amorphous carbon clusters that was synthesized by compressing
solvated fullerenes._

So not a new type of matter, a new type of solid-state material, right? Or are
different solid-state materials considered different forms of matter?

------
chm
Scientific journalism at its worst.

Really, this is fucking ridiculous.

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hypnocode
EDIT:

In light of some controversy over the title of this article I have taken the
liberty of removing what I see as being some of the more potentially
misleading terms.

The word "create" is rather obviously a misnomer based on Newtons laws, but
I'm trying to stay true to the text of the original article, while keeping the
discussion on the scientific merit of the subject.

Thank you.

------
flexxaeon
adamantium? _cheers_

