Aggregated diamond nanorod

Aggregated diamond nanorods, or ADNRs, are a nanocrystalline form of diamond, also known as "nanodiamond" or hyperdiamond. Nanodiamond was convincingly demonstrated to be produced by compression of graphite in 2003 and in the same work found to be much harder than bulk diamond,^[1] which makes it the hardest known material. Later it was also produced by compression of fullerene and it was confirmed that it is the hardest and least compressible known material, with an isothermal bulk modulus of 491 gigapascals (GPa), while a conventional diamond has a modulus of 442–446 GPa; these results were inferred from X-ray diffraction data, which also indicated that ADNRs are 0.3% denser than regular diamond.^[2] The same group later described ADNRs as "having a hardness and Young's modulus comparable to that of natural diamond, but with "superior wear resistance".^[3]

A <111> surface (normal to the largest diagonal of a cube) of pure diamond has a hardness value of 167±6 GPa when scratched with a nanodiamond tip, while the nanodiamond sample itself has a value of 310 GPa when tested with a nanodiamond tip.^[4] However, the test only works properly with a tip made of harder material than the sample being tested. This means that the true value for nanodiamond is likely somewhat lower than 310 GPa.

ADNRs are produced by compressing fullerite powder — a solid form of allotropic carbon fullerene — with two somewhat similar methods. One uses a diamond anvil cell and applied pressure ~37 GPa without heating the cell.^[5] In another method, fullerite is compressed to lower pressures (2–20 GPa) and then heated to a temperature in the range 300–2500 K.^[6][7][8][9] Extreme hardness of what now appears likely to have been nanodiamonds was reported by researchers in the 1990s.^[4][5] The material is a series of interconnected diamond nanorods, with diameters of between 5 and 20 nanometres and lengths of around 1 micrometre each.

See also

• Carbon nanotube
• Fullerite
• Diamond
• Rhenium diboride
• Mohs scale of mineral hardness

References

1. ^ Irifune, Tetsuo; Kurio, Ayako; Sakamoto, Shizue; Inoue, Toru; Sumiya, Hitoshi (2003). "Materials: Ultrahard polycrystalline diamond from graphite". Nature 421 (6923): 599–600. doi:10.1038/421599b. PMID 12571587. 
2. ^ Dubrovinskaia, Natalia; Dubrovinsky, Leonid; Crichton, Wilson; Langenhorst, Falko; Richter, Asta (2005). "Aggregated diamond nanorods, the densest and least compressible form of carbon". Applied Physics Letters 87: 083106. Bibcode 2005ApPhL..87h3106D. doi:10.1063/1.2034101. 
3. ^ Dubrovinskaia, Natalia; Dub, Sergey; Dubrovinsky, Leonid (2006). "Superior Wear Resistance of Aggregated Diamond Nanorods". Nano Letters 6: 824. Bibcode 2006NanoL...6..824D. doi:10.1021/nl0602084. 
4. ^ ^{a b} Blank, V (1998). "Ultrahard and superhard phases of fullerite C60: Comparison with diamond on hardness and wear". Diamond and Related Materials 7: 427. doi:10.1016/S0925-9635(97)00232-X. http://nanoscan.info/wp-content/publications/article_03.pdf. 
5. ^ ^{a b} Blank, V; Popov, M; Buga, S; Davydov, V; Denisov, V; Ivlev, A; Marvin, B; Agafonov, V et al. (1994). "Is C60 fullerite harder than diamond?". Physics Letters A 188: 281. Bibcode 1994PhLA..188..281B. doi:10.1016/0375-9601(94)90451-0. 
6. ^ Kozlov, M (1995). "Superhard form of carbon obtained from C60 at moderate pressure". Synthetic Metals 70: 1411. doi:10.1016/0379-6779(94)02900-J. 
7. ^ Blank, V (1995). "Ultrahard and superhard carbon phases produced from C60 by heating at high pressure: structural and Raman studies". Physics Letters A 205: 208. Bibcode 1995PhLA..205..208B. doi:10.1016/0375-9601(95)00564-J. 
8. ^ Szwarc, H; Davydov, V; Plotianskaya, S; Kashevarova, L; Agafonov, V; Ceolin, R (1996). "Chemical modifications of C under the influence of pressure and temperature: from cubic C to diamond". Synthetic Metals 77: 265. doi:10.1016/0379-6779(96)80100-7. 
9. ^ Blank, V (1996). "Phase transformations in solid C60 at high-pressure-high-temperature treatment and the structure of 3D polymerized fullerites". Physics Letters A 220: 149. Bibcode 1996PhLA..220..149B. doi:10.1016/0375-9601(96)00483-5. 

External links

• The invention of aggregated diamond nanorods at Physorg.com
• Diamonds are not forever at Physicsworld.org
• Photos of Aggregated diamond nanorods