Investigation of Room Temperature Formation of the Ultra-Hard Nanocarbons Diamond and Lonsdaleite

Dougal G. McCulloch, Sherman Wong, Thomas B. Shiell, Bianca Haberl, Brenton A. Cook, Xingshuo Huang, Reinhard Boehler, David R. McKenzie, Jodie E. Bradby

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Diamond is an attractive material due to its extreme hardness, high thermal conductivity, quantum optical, and biomedical applications. There is still much that is not understood about how diamonds form, particularly at room temperature and without catalysts. In this work, a new route for the formation of nanocrystalline diamond and the diamond-like phase lonsdaleite is presented. Both diamond phases are found to form together within bands with a core-shell structure following the high pressure treatment of a glassy carbon precursor at room temperature. The crystallographic arrangements of the diamond phases revealed that shear is the driving force for their formation and growth. This study gives new understanding of how shear can lead to crystallization in materials and helps elucidate how diamonds can form on Earth, in meteorite impacts and on other planets. Finally, the new shear induced formation mechanism works at room temperature, a key finding that may enable diamond and other technically important nanomaterials to be synthesized more readily.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2004695
JournalSmall
Volume16
Issue number50
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 17 2020

Funding

Portions of this work were performed at HPCAT (Sector 16) and GeoSoilEnviroCARS (The University of Chicago, Sector 13), Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. HPCAT operations were supported by DOE‐NNSA under Award No. DE‐NA0001974, with partial instrumentation funding by NSF. GeoSoilEnviroCARS is supported by the National Science Foundation – Earth Sciences (EAR – 1634415) and Department of Energy‐ GeoSciences (DE‐FG02‐94ER14466). The Advanced Photon Source is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. D.G.M., B.H., R.B. and D.R.M. would like to acknowledge the support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project scheme (DP170102087). J.E.B. would like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council (ARC) for ARC Discovery Project scheme (DP190101438). B.H. and R.B. were supported by resources at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), DOE Office of Science User Facilities operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL is funded under DOE‐BES contract number, DE‐AC05‐00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored by UT‐Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE‐AC05‐00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The authors thank Prof. Andrew Greentree and Associate Professor Nigel Marks for helpful suggestions on this manuscript. The authors thank Dr. Matthew Field and Dr. Nicholas Holtgrewe for assistance with the electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The authors also thank Dr. Christian Nottoff for assistance with Raman spectroscopy at ANU. The authors gratefully acknowledge the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility at RMIT University. Portions of this work were performed at HPCAT (Sector 16) and GeoSoilEnviroCARS (The University of Chicago, Sector 13), Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. HPCAT operations were supported by DOE-NNSA under Award No. DE-NA0001974, with partial instrumentation funding by NSF. GeoSoilEnviroCARS is supported by the National Science Foundation ? Earth Sciences (EAR ? 1634415) and Department of Energy- GeoSciences (DE-FG02-94ER14466). The Advanced Photon Source is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. D.G.M., B.H., R.B. and D.R.M. would like to acknowledge the support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project scheme (DP170102087). J.E.B. would like to acknowledge the Australian Research Council (ARC) for ARC Discovery Project scheme (DP190101438). B.H. and R.B. were supported by resources at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), DOE Office of Science User Facilities operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). ORNL is funded under DOE-BES contract number, DE-AC05-00OR22725. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The authors thank Prof. Andrew Greentree and Associate Professor Nigel Marks for helpful suggestions on this manuscript. The authors thank Dr. Matthew Field and Dr. Nicholas Holtgrewe for assistance with the electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The authors also thank Dr. Christian Nottoff for assistance with Raman spectroscopy at ANU. The authors gratefully acknowledge the RMIT Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility at RMIT University.

FundersFunder number
DOE-BES
DOE-NNSADE-NA0001974
DOE‐NNSA
Department of Energy- GeoSciences
Department of Energy‐ GeoSciencesDE‐FG02‐94ER14466
GeoSoilEnviroCARS
High Flux Isotope Reactor
National Science Foundation – Earth SciencesEAR – 1634415
National Science Foundation1634415
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of ScienceDE-AC02-06CH11357
Argonne National LaboratoryDE‐AC02‐06CH11357
Oak Ridge National LaboratoryDE‐AC05‐00OR22725
University of Chicago
Australian Research CouncilDP190101438, DP170102087
RMIT University

    Keywords

    • diamond
    • lonsdaleite
    • microscopy
    • shear
    • synthesis

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