Major Breakthrough in Superhard Materials: Chinese Scientists Successfully Synthesize Hexagonal Diamond at the Hundred-Micrometer Scale

After nearly a decade of continuous research, the Beijing High Pressure Science Research Center and an international research team led by scientists from the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences successfully transformed high-quality graphite single crystal precursors into highly ordered hexagonal diamonds at the hundred micron level. This achievement was published in the international journal "Nature" on the 30th. The study shows that the mechanical properties of hexagonal diamonds can rival those of cubic diamonds. Compared to cubic diamonds with only a single carbon-carbon bond length, hexagonal diamonds exhibit two different bond length distributions, and the interlayer distance is significantly reduced. This unique stacking of carbon atoms will effectively overcome the weakness of easy slip on the close-packed faces of cubic diamonds. This systematic study not only resolves more than 60 years of controversy about the macroscopic existence of hexagonal diamonds, but also lays a solid foundation for the development of hexagonal diamonds as a new generation of high-performance functional materials in the future.