Stunning gold earring discovered in Denmark may have been gifted by the Emperor of Byzantium to a Viking.
DIAMOND RUSH NYC REVIEWS FULL
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Nature. 'For decades researchers have been at the forefront of the field, using laboratory techniques to generate extreme pressures to produce novel materials,' commented Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory director Richard Carlson. The findings, they added, 'may enable new applications for amorphous solids.' These discoveries contribute to our knowledge about advanced amorphous materials and the synthesis of bulk amorphous materials by high-pressure and high-temperature techniques,' the team concluded. While the resulting glasses were small, at around 1mm across, they were large enough for characterisation. This process collapsed the ball-like molecules, inducing local disorder while retaining a diamond-like short-to-medium-range order. To turn buckminsterfullerene into a diamond-like carbon glass, the researchers compressed and heated buckyballs in a so-called large-volume multi-anvil press. Instead, the team turned to buckminsterfullerene, a form of carbon composed of 60 atoms arranged in a hollow, structure that resembles a soccer ball, a fact that has given it the popular name of 'buckyball' 'The trick is to find the right starting material to transform with the application of pressure.'īecause of its extremely high melting point at a whopping 7,280☏ (4,027☌), it is impossible to use diamond as a starting point to make diamond-like glass. 'The synthesis of an amorphous carbon material with three-dimensional bonds has been a long-standing goal,' explained Dr Fei. Graphite, for example, is flaky because it has a two-dimensional arrangement of bonds, with layers of strongly-bonded carbon atoms in a flat, hexagonal pattern.ĭiamond, meanwhile, sports a three-dimensional arrangement of bonds, which gives it more uniform hardness. The hardness of each form is dictated by its internal bonds. 'The comparatively low temperature at which we were able to synthesize this new ultrahard diamond glass makes mass production more practical.'Ĭarbon is able to assume a variety of stable forms, which differ based on their molecular structure. Some - like graphite and diamond - are highly structured, while others are disordered, or 'amorphous', like regular glass. 'The use of new glass materials hinges on making large pieces, which has posed a challenge in the past. 'The creation of a glass with such superior properties will open the door to new applications,' said paper author and geochemist Yingwei Fei of Washington's Carnegie Institution for Science.