An international team of researchers, which included Russian, Chinese and American physicists, reported the receipt of new structural forms of carbon, for many physical properties located between graphite and diamond, and the hardness - even approaching the diamond.

The results of studies and projections, the authors reported online journal Nature.com (Carbon that cracks diamond).

The authors described a new form of carbon-M (M-carbon), because its crystal structure corresponds to monoclinic Syngony - one of the seven main crystallographic forms. M-carbon was obtained by compression of graphite into diamond grip with a force of 130 thousand atmospheres without heating. When reducing the pressure of the M-carbon can move into other forms.

One of the founders of a new form of carbon Dr. Mao Ho-Kwang (Ho-Kwang Mao) from the Scientific Institute of the Carnegie (Carnegie Institution of Science) suggests that in very thin films of M-carbon could maintain stability and at normal pressure. However, Dr. Mao said that explore the properties of the M-carbon is very difficult because the removal of pressure, without a strong cooling of the material, becoming a new form of graphite.

Dr. Ma Yanmin (Yanming Ma) from the University Zhilin (Jilin University) Province Changchun, China, took an active part in the work, and his colleagues read that perhaps this new carbon material has been predicted in their theoretical work, dating from 2003.

Researchers suggest that the graphite in the transition to a new kind of state forms a closed structure in which there are some linkages between the layers. This is similar to that predicted by the Chinese physics.

Prof.Artem Oganov of moaning Brook University (Stony Brook University) in New York, United States, one of the sponsors of research, believes that the available data confirm the development in 2003. His calculations show that the M-carbon more stable than graphite at a pressure of more than 130 thousand atmospheres and his firm almost the same level as that of the diamond. Other anticipated features the M-carbon scientist brought clarity and lack of electrical conductivity.

Source: Nature Publishing Group