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Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, C1334
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Nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) is a unique material we produce by direct conversion of glassy carbon into diamond at ca. 20 GPa and 2200 K in a multi anvil press. One of precursor materials we use is commercially available in the form of glassy carbon balls with a diameter of 20 to 50 microns. NCD demonstrates superior mechanical properties (e.g. extremely high yield strength under confining pressure) and has been successfully used for ultra-high static pressure generation (above 600 GPa) in a double-stage diamond anvil cell (DAC) (Ref. 1). To elucidate structure-property relationships in this extremely strong and seemingly inscrutable material we have investigated its microstructure using HRTEM and HAADF-STEM, measured its compressibility by means of synchrotron X-ray diffraction in a DAC, and evaluated its hardness in comparison to that of the hardest known materials - single-crystal diamond and nano-polycrystalline diamond (NPD) (Ref. 2). An additional insight into the volume compressibility was obtained due to X-ray phase contrast micro-imaging using a coherent high-energy synchrotron radiation. The established structure-property relationships will be presented and analyzed.

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