Converting graphite into diamond has been a long held dream of alchemists the world over. In the modern era, materials scientists have puzzled over this process because it’s hard to work out why the ...

The graphite found in your favorite pencil could have instead been the diamond your mother always wears. What made the difference? Researchers are finding out. How molten carbon crystallizes into ...

It is hard to imagine that graphite, the soft "lead" of pencils, can be transformed into a form that competes in strength with its molecular cousin diamond. It is hard to imagine that graphite, the ...

A Yale-led team of mineral physicists has for the first time confirmed through high-pressure experiments the structure of cold-compressed graphite, a form of carbon that is comparable in hardness to ...

Since graphite—the dark material used in regular old pencils—and diamonds are both made from carbon, it’s technically feasible to turn the former into the latter. You just need to apply a little ...

Technology Review – This work, like the other structural predictions, is entirely theoretical, relying on computer simulations based on first principle calculations. And until somebody actually ...

In brief: Chinese researchers have developed a synthetic diamond that is significantly harder and more resilient than those that occur naturally here on Earth. If commercially viable, the new diamond ...

Scientists have for the first time turned diamond into graphite using ultra-short flashes of an X-ray laser. (Image: Reuters) Scientists have for the first time turned diamond into graphite using ...

Last month we heard about a brand new solid form of carbon, separate to the graphite and diamond forms that we already know so well. Called Q-Carbon because of the way that it is created (carbon is ...

Molten carbon can crystallize into diamond or graphite, but it has been difficult to study this process. New simulations show that graphite can sometimes "hijack" the pathway that would lead to ...