Q-carbon

Q-Carbon (Q from English: quenching) is a diamond -like or diamond-like allotropic form of carbon that is created by irradiating amorphous carbon layers with pulsed lasers in the nanosecond range under ambient conditions. By working at ambient temperature, the material cools down quickly and forms a highly supercooled melt from which various shapes of diamond-like material are formed as it cools. The rapid cooling is also known as quenching . Using this technique, one carat , equivalent to 0.2 grams of diamond-like substance, can be produced in about fifteen minutes.

The diamond-like material is initially created in the form of nanodiamonds in the size range of less than 100 nm, which serve as crystal nuclei; from this, microdiamonds in the size range over 100 nm grow. The resulting diamond-like substance is described as ferromagnetic and harder than diamond. These unusual properties are due to the presence of sp ³ - and sp ² explains orbitals in the solid state.

Individual evidence

^ New Substance Is Harder Than Diamond, Scientists Say
↑ Jagdish Narayan, Anagh Bhaumik: Research Update: Direct conversion of amorphous carbon into diamond at ambient pressures and temperatures in air. In: APL Materials. 3, 2015, p. 100702, doi : 10.1063 / 1.4932622 .
↑ Jagdish Narayan, Anagh Bhaumik: Novel phase of carbon, ferromagnetism, and conversion into diamond. In: Journal of Applied Physics. 118, 2015, p. 215303, doi : 10.1063 / 1.4936595 .

[1] New Substance Is Harder Than Diamond, Scientists Say

[DOI10.1063/1.4932622-2] Jagdish Narayan, Anagh Bhaumik: Research Update: Direct conversion of amorphous carbon into diamond at ambient pressures and temperatures in air. In: APL Materials. 3, 2015, p. 100702, doi : 10.1063 / 1.4932622 .

[DOI10.1063/1.4936595-3] Jagdish Narayan, Anagh Bhaumik: Novel phase of carbon, ferromagnetism, and conversion into diamond. In: Journal of Applied Physics. 118, 2015, p. 215303, doi : 10.1063 / 1.4936595 .