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It's about a new carbon material that's harder than diamond. It seems
to be obtained by compressing fullerene carbon at extreme pressure.
Just a few questions, if anyone cares to answer:
How is it possible for carbon material to be harder than the diamond
lattice? Isn't that lattice the ideal geometric shape for hardness
purposes?
Can one assume this new material will be comparable in brittleness to
diamond?
They briefly say that the process could be scaled up for
industrial-scale production. Will it only be possible to make this
material in bulk using the extreme pressure? When we see diamond-coated
razorblades and other diamond-coatings in consumer products, will the
manufacturing process for this new harder material allow for coating it
onto things?
Is the manufacturing process likely to be significantly more expensive
than for industrial diamond manufacturing?