Conventional Diamond is no Longer World’s Hardest Substance
Lonsdaleite, a rare and naturally occuring mineral, has been proven to be 58% harder than a diamond. The mineral, also known as a hexagonal diamond, is made of carbon atoms just like a diamond but they are arranged in a different shape.
Research conducted by both Natalia Dubrovinskaia from the University of Heidelberg in Germany and Zicheng Pan and colleagues at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in separate studies has yielded these results.
A second mineral, wurtzite boron nitride, is also harder than a diamond by 18% and is similarly composed of differently arranged carbon atoms.
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When you say “has been proven to be 58% harder than Diamond” what type of Diamond do you mean? “Diamond” really can be a whole “family” of Carbon based crystaline structured objects (synthetic Diamonds are stronger than naturally occuring Diamonds so what type of Diamond is being referenced here)? What specific Diamond structures are they using as a measure
thanx for this wonderful piece of info helped my bro complete his school project work !
@Kalel
You are right, the title was changed to “Conventional” diamond to reflect the fact that the harder substances were still in the diamond family. Thank you!
@simarpreet
You’re Welcome! Glad it helped.