2024-03-22 04:22:28
The supercomputer “Frontier” recently simulated a new carbon phase – a substance called “super diamond”, which is theoretically harder than naturally occurring diamonds on the earth.
Super diamonds, like ordinary diamonds, are composed of carbon atoms. This special carbon phase structure, composed of eight carbon atoms, should be stable at normal temperatures and pressures and can survive even in an earth laboratory.
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This carbon phase, called BC8, is a high-pressure phase commonly found in silicon and germanium. Research shows that carbon can also exist in this form.
Frontier supercomputers simulated the evolution of billions of carbon atoms under extreme pressure and predicted that BC8 carbon is 30% more resistant to compression than ordinary diamonds. The team’s research was recently published in Physical Chemistry Letters.
“Despite multiple attempts to synthesize this elusive carbon crystalline phase, including previous National Ignition Facility (NIF) experiments, its presence has not yet been observed,” said research from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Co-author Marius Millot said in a lab release. “But we believe it could exist on carbon-rich exoplanets.”
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Scientists didn’t wait for better observations of distant planets to start studying super diamonds, which can only form in extremely high-pressure environments – the cores of these exoplanets.
Only found in carbon-rich, high-pressure outer planetary cores
Supercomputer simulations predict the synthesis pathway for the elusive BC8 “super diamond,” including shock wave compression of diamond precursors, inspiring the ongoing Discovery Science experiment at the NIF (National Ignition Facility). (Photo/LLNL)
“The extreme conditions of these carbon-rich exoplanets may have given birth to carbon structural forms such as diamond and BC8,” Ivan Oleynik, a physicist at the University of South Florida and senior author of the paper, said in the same release. “Therefore, a deep understanding of the properties of BC8’s carbon phase is critical to developing models of the interiors of these exoplanets.”
In theory, BC8 is the most stable phase of carbon, stable at pressures exceeding 10 million atmospheres. “The BC8 carbon phase at normal temperatures and pressures may be a new superhard material, tougher than diamond,” Oleynik said.
Currently, the research team dreams of one day growing BC8 super diamonds in the laboratory.
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First picture source: LLNL cc By4.0
Reference papers:
1.Extreme Metastability of Diamond and its Transformation to the BC8 Post-Diamond Phase of CarbonThe Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Further reading:
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