Artificial diamonds can cut anything in nature.

A team of researchers in Australia has created a rare type of diamond that is even harder than real diamonds found in nature.

A diamond anvil used by scientists to create nano-sized Lonsdaleite diamonds. Photo: Jamie Kidston, Australian National University.

Australian researchers have created a nano-sized version of Lonsdaleite diamond in the lab that is said to be harder than the natural original, according to research published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Lonsdaleite diamonds (also known as hexagonal diamonds) are often found in the centers of craters.meteoritecollided with Earth. It is special because most diamonds are made of carbon in a cubic lattice, while Lonsdaleite diamond has a hexagonal crystal lattice, making it 58% harder than natural diamond, according toScience Alert.

Researchers say the new diamond is so hard it can cut other superhard materials, including regular diamonds.

“The hexagonal structure of these diamond molecules makes them harder than regular diamonds, which have a cubic structure,” said researcher Jodie Bradby of the Australian National University. “We can make them at the nanoscale, which is really exciting because smaller materials are harder.”

The research team created the new material using nanotechnology from a type of carbon that has no specific shape, called amorphous carbon.

Lonsdaleite diamonds were first discovered in the Canyon Diablo impact crater in 1967. Researchers had previously tried to create them in the lab but were unsuccessful. They form only at very high temperatures, around 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Bradby and her team used a different approach. They placed the carbon in a device called a diamond anvil, made from two diamonds placed opposite each other to create the high-pressure environment found deep inside the Earth. With this device, they could create diamonds at temperatures as low as 400 degrees Celsius, making the process both cost-effective and efficient.

Researchers need to do more testing to find out exactly how many times harder the new diamond is than current materials.

According to VNE