Abstract:
In this talk, Prof. Yue will introduce his recent work about the super hard and tough diamond.
The well known trade off between hardness and toughness makes simultaneous improvement of
both properties challenging, especially in diamond. Here they report the structural characterization
of adiamond composite hierarchically assembled with coherently interfaced diamond polytypes,
interwoven nanotwins and interlocked nanograins. The architecture of the composite enhances
toughness more than nanotwinning alone, without sacrificing hardness.Singleedge notched beam
tests yield a toughness up to five times that of synthetic diamond,even greater than that of magnesium
alloys. When fracture occurs, a crack propagates through diamond nanotwins of the 3C (cubic) polytype
along {111} planes, via a zigzag path. As the crack encounters regions of non 3C polytypes, its propagation
is diffused into sinuous fractures,with local transformation into 3C diamond near the fracture surfaces.
Both processes dissipate strain energy,thereby enhancing toughness.This work could prove useful in
making superhard materials and engineering ceramics.
Biography of the Speaker: