Supercomputer unlocks secret to producing otherworldly ‘super diamond’

The world’s fastest supercomputer has helped scientists crack the code of how rare ‘super-diamonds’ are created. 

The super diamonds – known as BC8 – are believed to be around 30 percent tougher than diamonds and are thought to be found in the center of carbon-rich exoplanets.

However, attempts to create one of these crystals in a lab have proved unsuccessful. 

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‘Super diamonds’ are thought to be 30% tougher than normal diamonds

The universe still holds plenty of surprises for us folk back here on Earth – such as the discovery of the asteroid worth $100,000 quintillion or the fact that space apparently has its own unique and distinctive smell. 

Meanwhile, some exoplanets – a term used for any planets outside of our solar system – are thought to contain the superstrong eight-atom crystal known as BC8. 

As it would require a trip out of our solar system to go and retrieve one of these ‘diamonds’, scientists have attempted to synthesize them in a lab – without any success. 

“The BC8 phase of carbon at ambient conditions would be a new super-hard material that would likely be tougher than diamond,” said Ivan Oleynik, a physics professor at the University of South Florida and the study’s lead author, in a statement. 

Scientists used supercomputer Frontier to gain a better understanding

But thanks to the world’s fastest supercomputer – known as Frontier – they have been able to run millions of atomic modeling situations over millions of sets of conditions to find out exactly what sort of conditions would be required for BC8 to be created. Smart stuff, right? 

“By efficiently implementing this potential on GPU-based (graphics processing unit) Frontier, we can now accurately simulate the time evolution of billions of carbon atoms under extreme conditions at experimental time and length scales,” Oleynik said. 

“We predicted that the post-diamond BC8 phase would be experimentally accessible only within a narrow, high-pressure, high-temperature region of the carbon phase diagram.”

The researchers say attempts to synthesize BC8 have been unsuccessful because it can only be made within a ‘very narrow range of pressures and temperatures’.

However, the study also predicted viable compression pathways to get to the exact point where creating BC8 becomes achievable. 

The team is hopeful that one day, they will be able to grow their very own BC8 super-diamond in the laboratory.