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Science & Technology

Scientists discover material harder than diamond

By T.K. Randall
February 14, 2009 · Comment icon 19 comments

Image Credit: Wikipedia
Up until now diamond has been considered to be the hardest material known to man, but scientists from two universities in Shanghai and Las Vegas have conducted new resarch in to a material known as wurtzite boron nitride which is believed to be even harder. On top of that, another material known as lonsdaleite may be even harder than that.
Currently, diamond is regarded to be the hardest known material in the world. But by considering large compressive pressures under indenters, scientists have calculated that a material called wurtzite boron nitride (w-BN) has a greater indentation strength than diamond. The scientists also calculated that another material, lonsdaleite (also called hexagonal diamond, since it’s made of carbon and is similar to diamond), is even stronger than w-BN and 58 percent stronger than diamond, setting a new record."


Source: PhysOrg.com | Comments (19)




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Comment icon #10 Posted by mcc0037 16 years ago
diamonds...wurtzite boron nitride are a girls best friend... HA! That sounds attractive right? "I knew you wanted this 5k princess cut Wurtzite Boron Nitride on a 18k white gold band..." followed by a quote off a movie from Ash: "Gimme some sugar, baby."-Army of Darkness
Comment icon #11 Posted by Andromedae 16 years ago
diamonds...wurtzite boron nitride are a girls best friend... haha lol
Comment icon #12 Posted by ShadowSot 16 years ago
I thought it was Chuck Norris... _ Up until now diamond has been considered to be the hardest material known to man, but scientists from two universities in Shanghai and Las Vegas have conducted new resarch in to a material known as wurtzite boron nitride which is believed to be even harder.
Comment icon #13 Posted by AGoodWriter 16 years ago
Ok can we go to space now?
Comment icon #14 Posted by Benz 16 years ago
the real question is "How hard is it to get this material?, and how much of it is left on Earth?"
Comment icon #15 Posted by Andromedae 16 years ago
the real question is "How hard is it to get this material?, and how much of it is left on Earth?" lonsdaleite is only found in certain meteorites.
Comment icon #16 Posted by SpIdErCyDe 16 years ago
We already knew about this a while back...it's called Adamantium, snikt.
Comment icon #17 Posted by jbondo 16 years ago
I work with this stuff every day. These structures can all be synthetically produced in a laboratory. We have been working with WBN for quite some time now. So this discovery didn't just happen yesterday.
Comment icon #18 Posted by Oen Anderson 16 years ago
I still think the hardest thing on Earth was fourth grade math! LOL!
Comment icon #19 Posted by raphnix 16 years ago
Actually, chemists nowadays can come up with new compound metals to beat other hardest material like diamond.


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