Material Harder Than Diamond, Not From Outer Space

Scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and University of Nevada, Las Vegas had created materials which are harder than diamond. Diamonds were thought as the hardest material in this world; however scientists converted certain materials with compressive pressure under indenter which were transformed into materials harder than diamond. The two materials were wurtzite boron nitride (w-BN) and lonsdaleite (hexagonal diamond). It was said that lonsdaleite was 50% harder than w-BN. The compressive pressure caused the structural phase transformation and atomic bonds flipping to transform the materials. The finding was published in Physical Review Letters.