Can copper be turned into gold? For centuries, alchemists chased this dream, unaware that such a transformation requires a nuclear reaction. On the other hand, graphite—the material in pencil tips—and diamond share the same basic building blocks: carbon atoms. The key difference lies in how these atoms are arranged. Turning graphite into diamond demands extreme heat and pressure to break and rebuild chemical bonds, making it an impractical process.
A more achievable transformation, according to Prof. Moshe Ben Shalom, head of the Quantum Layered Matter Group at Tel Aviv University, involves reconfiguring the atomic layers of graphite by subtly shifting them. Unlike the strong chemical bonds that form diamonds, the layers in graphite are held together by weak van der Waals forces, allowing them to slide against each other. Prof. Ben Shalom, along with PhD students Maayan Vizner Stern and Simon Salleh Atri from the Raymond & Beverly Sackler School of Physics & Astronomy at Tel Aviv University, explored this idea in a study recently published in Nature Review Physics.
Innovating with Polytype Materials
While this process won’t create diamonds, it could have even greater technological value. If the atomic layer shifting can be done quickly and efficiently, it could enable the development of tiny, high-performance electronic memory units. These newly engineered “polytype” materials could ultimately prove more valuable than both diamonds and gold.
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