It s Stronger than Diamond, say Experts after Testing Lonsdaleite idexonline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from idexonline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Diamonds are the strongest material on Earth, but an even stronger type of diamond has been created in the lab. Hexagonal diamonds are stiffer and stronger than the typical cubic diamonds used for jewelry, according to WSU researchers.
Both graphite and diamonds are made of carbon, and this allows graphite to be converted to diamond under extreme compression, said Yogendra Gupta, professor at the WSU Institute for Shock Physics and co-author in the study.
To convert the graphite into diamond, a small graphite disk was accelerated through a two-stage gas gun, said lead author Travis Volz, who worked on the research during his doctoral work at WSU. Volz is now a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
WSU alumnus Ranga Dias has been recognized as an innovator and emerging leader by Time in its 2021 Time100 Next list for the creation of the first-ever room-temperature superconductor.
Unlike ordinary metals, superconductive material has two unique properties: it has no electrical resistance and no magnetic field, Dias said.
“You can send the current without any resistance so that there’s no loss of energy,” Dias said. “This can be revolutionizing if we can make a room-temperature superconducting wire.”
This technology has seemingly endless capabilities, Dias said. Superconductivity could transform technological development, transportation, power systems and medical equipment. Essentially, anything that uses electricity could be improved by superconductivity.
Lab-made hexagonal diamonds stiffer than natural diamonds scienceblog.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scienceblog.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
March 12, 2021
University of Rochester assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy Ranga Dias photographed in his lab in Hopeman Hall February 2, 2021. Dias goal is to create novel quantum materials such as superconductors with a critical temperature at or near room temperature. // photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester
By RJ Wolcott, WSU News
A breakthrough in superconductivity has landed a WSU grad in the latest Time Magazine list of top innovators.
Ranga Dias, a 2013 PhD graduate, was named one of 19 innovation leaders in the 2021 Time100 Next list, which highlights emerging leaders shaping the future. His work to develop a room temperature superconductor represents a significant advancement in the field, with wide-ranging applications from transportation to medical imaging, and even hover boards.