If you think diamond is the hardest material on the planet, you are completely mistaken. Thanks to advanced technology, scientists have developed “super materials” that significantly surpass diamond in hardness.
Carbon is one of the most remarkable elements in nature, with distinct chemical and physical properties compared to other elements. With just 6 protons in its nucleus, carbon is the lightest element capable of forming complex chemical bonds. All known forms of life are based on carbon, as carbon atoms can form chemical bonds with up to four other atoms simultaneously.
Compared to graphene, diamond falls short.
Under high pressure, carbon can combine with other carbon atoms to form a stable crystalline network structure. Under the right conditions, carbon atoms can also form an extremely tough and superhard structure known as diamond.
Although diamond is known as the hardest material in the world, there are actually 6 types of materials that outperform diamond. Of course, diamond still ranks among the hardest natural materials on Earth, but it is difficult to compare it with these materials.
Here is a summary of the 10 hardest super materials in the world today, listed in ascending order:
10. Spider Silk: Silk from the Darwin’s Bark spider is considered the toughest biological material ever known. It is even ten times stronger than Kevlar, a material commonly used for making bulletproof vests.
9. Silicon Carbide (SiC): (commonly found in the form of moissanite) is just slightly harder than diamond. Silicon carbide particles have been produced on a large scale since 1893. Silicon and carbon belong to the same group of elements and can form this extremely hard material under high pressure but relatively low temperatures through a process known as sintering. These materials are suitable for many applications requiring high hardness, such as brake pads, clutches, armor plating, tank armor, etc., and they also possess excellent semiconductor properties, making them crucial in the production of electronic components.
8. Nanospheres/Nano-Kevlar: These tiny self-assembling nanoparticles are the hardest organic materials ever created by humans. They could lead to the development of 3D-printed body armor.
7. Diamond: This natural material is the hardest in the world and has unparalleled scratch resistance.
6. Wurtzite Boron Nitride: This material is formed during volcanic eruptions and is theoretically 18% harder than diamond. However, in practice, humans have never obtained a sufficient quantity of this material to test this hypothesis.
5. Lonsdaleite: Natural diamond forms cubic crystals, while lonsdaleite forms hexagonal crystals and has a composition similar to diamond but can be up to 58% harder. Thus, lonsdaleite is also referred to as hexagonal carbon (a polymorph of carbon with a hexagonal lattice). This material is formed when graphite-containing meteoroids collide with Earth. Simulation results indicate that lonsdaleite could be 58% harder than diamond, but researchers have yet to test this in practice due to its extreme rarity.
4. Dyneema: Dyneema is a type of thermoplastic polyethylene polymer with an extremely high molecular weight. Most known molecules have only a few thousand atomic mass units, but the molecular chains of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene are extremely long, and a single molecule can weigh up to tens of millions of atomic mass units. With such long molecular chains, the interaction between molecules is significantly enhanced. In fact, this material has the highest impact strength of all known thermoplastics and is considered the strongest fiber material in the world, outperforming all types of ropes and straps on the market, lighter than water, and capable of withstanding bullets.
3. Metallic Glass: This alloy glass is a product that combines hardness and strength. It is considered the most durable material on Earth today.
2. Buckypaper: This nano material is made from carbon molecules in tubular form, thinner than a human hair by 50,000 times. Compared to steel, buckypaper is 500 times harder but weighs 10 times less.
1. Graphene: This is a single-layer carbon material that is 200 times stronger than steel. To puncture a sheet of graphene as thin as plastic wrap, you would need the pressure created by an elephant standing on a pencil.
