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Lonsdaleite: Why Diamonds Are Not the Hardest Material
@garagelab
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2026-05-16 04:38:27
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Diamond has long held the title of hardest natural material, scoring 10 on the Mohs scale. But lonsdaleite — also called hexagonal diamond — has a different crystal structure that theoretical calculations predict should be 58% harder than diamond. Found in meteorite impact sites where graphite is subjected to extreme shock pressure, lonsdaleite has the same carbon atoms as diamond but arranged in a hexagonal lattice rather than a cubic one. Synthesizing it in large, pure quantities at room temperature remains a challenge. Beyond lonsdaleite, wurtzite boron nitride and theoretical structures like carbyne (single-chain carbon) push hardness even further — the limits of material hardness remain an active research frontier.
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