Scientists have developed a form of ultrastrong, lightweight carbon that is hard as a diamond yet elastic like rubber and electrically conductive.
"In simple terms, the material combines the best properties of graphitic- and diamond-like forms of carbon," study co-lead author Zhisheng Zhao, professor at Yanshan University, China, said in an email to Xinhua.
"This combination of properties is useful for many potential applications, such as military armor and aerospace."
The findings were published this week by the U.S. journal Science Advances.
Carbon is an element of seemingly infinite possibilities. This is because it has the flexibility to form different types of chemical bonds, which allows it to exhibit a variety of fascinating structures.
According to Zhao, pressure is an effective tool to control this chemical bonding and induce so-called phase transformations.
For example, under high-pressure conditions, soft graphite transforms into diamond, the hardest material known.
In the new study, scientists pressurized and heated a structurally disordered form of carbon called glassy carbon to create the new form of carbon.
"The process is similar to converting graphite into diamond, however, in our new approach, the temperature used is not high enough to produce diamond," Zhao said.