Superdiamante

1993/11/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

A from the United States. C. Ramdas and his team just got the hardest material in the world: the superdiamond. Natural diamonds are composed of 12 elements of carbon, but the superdiamond is a 13 carbon isotope.

The stable carbon atom has six protons in the nucleus, but can contain six or seven neutrons; six carbon atoms 12 and seven carbon atoms 13. Almost everything in nature is 12 carbon (98.9%) and 13 carbon isotope is only 1.1%.

However, current advances in diamond synthesis allow the growth of monocrystals of any isotope and carbon isotope 13. In the United States the characteristics of the superdiamond have been measured and it has been shown to be the hardest material on earth.