Diamond is likely one of the hardest supplies identified to man, however consultants assume it may be squashed into one thing even tougher.The valuable stone is a naturally occurring substance fabricated from carbon crystals. It’s discovered within the Earth, with analysis even suggesting ‘fountains of diamonds’ could possibly be despatched capturing as much as the floor as a part of a serious geological occasion.Whereas it was beforehand regarded as one of many hardest supplies due to its tetrahedral lattice, which is an extremely rugged particle construction, consultants have found out a method to remodel it into one thing even tougher.Physicists from the US and Sweden have provide you with a simulation that’s believed to be 30 per cent extra immune to compression than diamonds.The consultants ran quantum-accurate molecular-dynamics simulations on a supercomputer, with a view to take a look at how diamond behaves beneath excessive strain and temperatures which ought to theoretically make it unstable.Is there a means of creating diamonds tougher?iStockTheir outcomes revealed how particulars in regards to the situations beneath which carbon atoms in diamonds may be pushed to create the weird construction.The configuration is named the eight-atom body-centred cubic (BC8) section and has solely been noticed on Earth in two different supplies – silicon and germanium.On Earth, the BC8 section of carbon doesn’t naturally exist, however it’s thought that in outer area within the highly-pressurised environments inside exoplanets, it might do.Physicist Jon Eggert, from the Lawrence Livermore Nationwide Laboratory, defined: “The BC8 construction maintains this good tetrahedral nearest-neighbor form, however with out the cleavage planes discovered within the diamond construction.”Whereas the speculation is sound, makes an attempt to synthesise it, in actuality, have as but been unsuccessful. It is because there’s a very small area of temperature and strain beneath which the BC8 section can happen and people ranges are unknown.Physicist Ivan Olyenik from the College of South Florida, defined: “We predicted that the post-diamond BC8 section can be experimentally accessible solely inside a slender high-pressure, high-temperature area of the carbon section diagram.”Join our free indy100 weekly newsletterHow to hitch the indy100’s free WhatsApp channelHave your say in our information democracy. Click on the upvote icon on the high of the web page to assist elevate this text via the indy100 rating