Yes. A 2016 study reported making nanocrystalline lonsdaleite—the hexagonal form of diamond—from glassy carbon in a diamond anvil cell at 100 GPa and 400 °C. The researchers recovered the material and examined it with diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy. That is evidence for a laboratory synthesis, not proof that lonsdaleite is harder than ordinary diamond or that it can be manufactured for everyday use.
What is lonsdaleite?
Lonsdaleite is a form of diamond in which carbon atoms are arranged in a hexagonal structure rather than the cubic structure of ordinary diamond. The 2016 study by Thomas B. Shiell and colleagues reported synthesizing nearly pure lonsdaleite from glassy carbon. The result was nanocrystalline: it consisted of very small crystals, not a large gemstone.
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How did the diamond anvil cell make it?
A diamond anvil cell compresses a tiny sample between the tips of two diamonds, generating pressures far beyond ordinary industrial conditions. In this experiment, the sample was glassy carbon, a disordered form of carbon, and the cell was heated to 400 °C. The paper’s abstract gives 100 GPa and 400 °C as the reported synthesis conditions. The experimental run reached pressures as high as 112 GPa and lasted two hours.
The team recovered the sample at ambient conditions and used diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy to characterize the resulting material. The authors reported that lonsdaleite formed in an annular region of the sample.
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Why did the researchers use glassy carbon?
The precursor’s structure matters because forming hexagonal diamond requires carbon atoms to adopt a particular arrangement. The authors proposed that intense radial plastic flow during compression helped lock favorable stackings of graphene sheets in place, lowering the energy barrier for the transformation. First-principles calculations supported that explanation.
This is the researchers’ interpretation of how the transformation occurred, not a mechanism directly observed in isolation. Their central experimental claim is the synthesis and characterization of lonsdaleite under the reported conditions.
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How does this compare with earlier reports?
The paper set its result against earlier reports of recoverable lonsdaleite made by static compression at temperatures above 800 °C. Chemistry World’s contemporaneous account also described the glassy-carbon precursor and diamond-anvil-cell experiment. The reported 400 °C temperature was therefore substantially lower than that earlier high-temperature context, but the pressure remained extreme and the equipment highly specialized.
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Does this prove hexagonal diamond is harder than ordinary diamond?
No. The study does not establish a comparative hardness result. Co-author Jodie Bradby said that accurately measuring the sample’s hardness remained difficult because of its dimensions and nature. A synthesis claim and a hardness claim are separate: identifying a material’s structure does not by itself show that it outperforms ordinary diamond in hardness.
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Can this method make lonsdaleite for consumers?
The study demonstrates a laboratory synthesis, not a practical production route. It relied on a diamond anvil cell and pressure around 100 GPa; the paper does not establish commercial manufacturing, a retail product, or a consumer application. The recovered material was nanocrystalline rather than a finished gem or usable bulk component.
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Sources
- Shiell et al., “Disordered carbon as a precursor to lonsdaleite,” Scientific Reports, published November 29, 2016.
- Chemistry World’s 2016 coverage of the lower-temperature lonsdaleite synthesis.
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