New carbon-based nanomaterial: Facile diamond synthesis from lower 'diamondoids'

In a new report published in Science Advances, Sulgiye Park and a research team in geological sciences, materials and energy sciences, advanced research and advanced radiation sources in the U.S. and Beijing, China, developed a carbon-based nanomaterial with exceptional properties. They used new "diamondoids" as a promising precursor to develop laser-induced, high-pressure and high-temperature diamonds. The lowest pressure and temperature conditions to yield diamonds in the study were 12 GPa at approximately 2000 K and 900 K at a pressure of 20 GPa, respectively. The work showed a substantially reduced transformation barrier compared with diamond synthesis using conventional hydrocarbon allotropes. Park et al. credited the observations to structural similarities and the full sp³ hybridization of both diamondoids and bulk diamond.