New structure of carbon element: can be converted into diamond at room temperature

Scientists at North Carolina State University have discovered a new form of solid carbon, called "Q-carbon," which is significantly different in morphology from the well-known graphite and diamonds. At the same time, they have developed a technology that uses Q-carbon to produce a material similar to a diamond structure at normal temperature and pressure.
The phase is a different manifestation of the same substance. Graphite is a solid phase of carbon, and diamond is another.
“We created the third form of solid carbon,” said Jay Narayan, a Distinguished Chair Professor at North Carolina State University and the first of three related papers in the study. Author. "In nature, it is only possible to find traces in the core of certain planets."

Magical Q-carbon
Q-carbon has some unique properties. For example, it has ferromagnetism - something that is not found in other solid forms of carbon. In addition, Q-carbon is harder than diamonds, and it shines even when exposed to lower energy.
"Q-carbon's high hardness and low work function (which means easier to release electrons) make it possible to develop new electronic display technologies," said Narayan.
But Q-carbon can also be used to prepare a variety of single crystal diamonds. In order to fully understand this, we need to understand the preparation process of Q-carbon.

Making diamonds with Q-carbon
Scientists start with a base material such as sapphire, glass or plastic polymer, and apply a layer of amorphous carbon on the surface—that is, a carbon element without a regular crystal structure. Then, a single laser pulse is used to scan this layer of amorphous carbon. Nanoseconds. During the scanning process, the carbon temperature rises to 4000K (about 3727 ° C) and then cools rapidly. This operation is carried out under a constant pressure (atmospheric pressure).
Eventually we will get a thin layer of Q-carbon, and the researchers can control the process to get a carbon layer of any thickness between 20nm and 500nm.
Researchers can also control the rate of cooling by selecting different substrate materials and varying the width of the laser pulse to create a diamond structure inside Q-carbon.
“We can produce diamond nanoneedles, microneedles, nanodots or large-area diamond films for drug delivery, industrial processing or for the manufacture of high temperature switches and power electronics,” says Narayan. “These diamond materials They all have a single crystal structure and their strength is higher than that of polycrystalline materials. Moreover, the whole process can be completed under normal temperature and pressure, and only a laser like laser eye surgery is needed. Therefore, we can not only study its new application range. And the process cost of this process is also very low."
If researchers want more Q-carbons to be converted into diamonds, they only need to repeat the laser scanning and cooling process.
If Q-carbon is harder than diamonds, why prepare diamond nanodots instead of directly preparing Q-carbon nanodots? Because our understanding of this new material is too limited.
“We can make Q-carbon films and we are constantly researching its properties, but we are still in the early stages of learning how to control it,” Narayan said. “We know very well about diamonds, so we can make diamond nanodots. But We still don't know how to prepare Q-carbon nanodots and micron needles, which is the focus of our research."
North Carolina State University has applied for two interim patents for Q-carbon and diamond preparation technology.

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