Researchers synthesize diamond touted as world's hardest

Sunday 19th December, 05:40 AM JST

MATSUYAMA —

A research team led by Ehime University has successfully synthesized what it believed to be the world’s hardest artificial diamond, a professor from the university said Saturday.

The cylindrical diamond, dubbed ‘‘Hime,’’ measures over 1 centimeter in diameter and length.

Having jointly developed it with Osaka-based Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd, the team aims to commercialize the Hime diamond as early as next year, said Tetsuo Irifune, head of the Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture-based university’s Geodynamics Research Center.

When the diamond type was first synthesized in 2003, it could only be made up to about 1 millimeter in diameter, but the use since March last year of ultra-high-pressure synthesizing machinery has made development of a larger product possible, he said.

‘‘A large Hime diamond is useful for experiments to study the high-pressure deep interior of earth. Also as a product for industrial use, its lifetime is several times longer than that of an ordinary diamond,’’ Irifune said