An international team of scientists from Scotland, Germany and Sweden has announced a breakthrough in the creation of ultra-strong materials. They obtained carbon nitrides that are only slightly inferior to diamonds in terms of hardness. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Advanced Materials (AdvMat).
The team’s discovery emerged as a result of carbon nitride experiments that began in the 1980s. Experts exposed carbon and nitrogen compounds to pressures ranging from 70 to 135 gigapascals (1 million times higher than the pressure of the Earth’s atmosphere) at temperatures above 1,500 °C.
The resulting materials turned out to be harder than cubic boron nitride, which until recently was the second hardest substance in the world after diamond.
Superhard carbon nitrides also have additional properties such as photoluminescence and high energy storage density.
According to the researchers, the new materials can be used for industrial purposes, in protective coatings for cars and spacecraft, in solar panels, photodetectors and in the production of high-strength cutting tools.
Previously in China was created Technology for extracting uranium from seawater.