A groundbreaking discovery by Chinese scientists has led to the creation of an artificial diamond that surpasses natural diamonds in strength and heat resistance. Lonsdaleite is an allotrope of carbon that has a hexagonal crystal structure, rather than the cubic lattice of conventional diamond. It was first identified in 1967 from the Canyon Diablo meteorite, in Arizona, USA, regarded as one of the best-preserved meteorite craters on Earth. It was named after crystallographer Professor Dame Kathleen Lonsdale.

 This new form, known as hexagonal diamond or lonsdaleite, has long been theorized to be harder than traditional diamonds but has remained difficult to synthesize in the lab. Recent advancements in material science have now made it possible, opening up exciting possibilities for industrial and commercial applications.

Scientists at Jilin University in China have successfully created an artificial diamond that surpasses natural ones in hardness and heat resistance. By heating compressed graphite under precise conditions, they have produced high-quality hexagonal diamonds, a structure known as lonsdaleite. This rare form, typically found in meteorite impact sites, has long been difficult to replicate in laboratories. The newly developed material exhibits remarkable structural integrity, promising advancements in various industries. A team from Jilin University and Sun Yat-sen University say their lab-grown version is at least 40 per cent harder and far more durable than a natural diamond.

“Our findings offer valuable insights regarding the graphite-to-diamond conversion under elevated pressure and temperature, providing opportunities for the fabrication and applications of this unique material,” they say in the journal Nature Materials.Their lab grown Lonsdaleite is likely to be used in a new generation of superconductors.