Rice University researchers have developed a way to stabilize diamond during high-temperature and low-pressure processing, creating a strong bulk composite and discovering that high-speed collisions can rapidly transform diamond into graphite. Their study is published in Materials Today.

Diamond is one of the hardest known materials, with high thermal conductivity, properties that make it valuable for technologies that operate under extreme conditions. The findings could help researchers design tougher materials for aerospace, defense and other demanding environments by showing how diamond changes and absorbs energy under extreme force.

“This was quite an exciting outcome as it is nearly impossible to sinter diamond at lower pressures, and this new process we have developed could lead to the large-scale manufacturing of diamond-based composites,” said Pulickel Ajayan, the lead author of the study and the Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering.