The constant experimentation of researchers and scientists makes the world going by achieving multiple milestones and breakthroughs that turn out to be extremely beneficial for the world. Let it be a new mechanism, system, innovative technology, or a material, researchers, and scientists all over the world have got it covered.
Recently, material engineers from China have discovered a material previously unknown to the world. It is glass but so strong that it is capable of scratching a diamond. The research is published in South China Morning Post. This has unlocked multiple intriguing avenues in the field of photovoltaics.
The material is called AM-III. It has a lot of similarities with diamonds, but the structures vary tremendously. Also, it is concluded that the material is made up of carbon. Diamonds have a structure of organized lattice with atoms and molecules while AM-III has a more disorderly arrangement and will be called amorphous.
Scientists from Yanshan University in China have worked relentlessly to bring this material to life. They experimented with the form of the material and also tried the soccer-ball-shaped molecules that are called fullerenes.
Different kinds of fullerenes are used to make ignitable nanoparticles, solar cells, and are used in studies of space. Now, it is discovered that they can also be used in the making of hard and strong amorphous solids. The temperature and pressure of the molecules and atoms were regulated and experimented with before the scientists reached the making of this material.
Different tests were also run on the material. It had a 113 GPa on a Vickers hardness test. When compared to steel, steel has 9 GPa while diamonds have 70 to 100 GPa. The material is also a semiconductor. Its conductivity is ranging from 1.5 to 2.2 eV. The entire study is published in the National Science Review.
