Compressed Carbon Nanotubes - Carnegie/DOE Alliance Center - CDAC

Compressed Carbon Nanotubes - Carnegie/DOE Alliance Center - CDAC: "Cold compression of carbon nanotubes at 75 GPa results in the formation of a superhard hexagonal carbon polymorph that has a different structure than hexagonal diamond [Wang, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci 101, 38, 13699 (2004]. This new phase is quenchable to ambient pressure and has an experimentally determined bulk modulus of 447 GPa, slightly higher than that of cubic diamond (440-442 GPa). As illustrated in the micrograph above, formation of the superhard material cracks the diamond anvils used in the synthesis, and leaves a 3 micron indentation in the surface of the anvil (smaller circle)."