\u201cThis hidden mechanism may play a role in the elasticity of brittle materials and suggest the archetype of rigidity diamond can have its mechanical properties tuned at nanoscale,\u201d the team, led by researchers at Zengzhou University and the Henan Academy of Sciences in China, noted in the study.<\/p>\n
The stretchy point <\/p>\n
The key mechanism behind this elasticity is the ratio between the number of atoms on a diamond\u2019s surface layer as opposed to the diamond\u2019s core. This ratio tends to be much larger in nanodiamonds, whereas bigger diamonds have a smaller surface-to-core ratio. This relationship dictates how diamonds act under pressure, Chongxin Shan, the study\u2019s senior author and a material scientist at Zengzhou University, told New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n In nanodiamonds, the larger surface-to-core ratio results in weak bonds between the surface atoms and the inner core at what\u2019s called the interfacial regions. This weaker area plays a \u201cdecisive role\u201d in nanodiamonds\u2019 elastic properties, the paper explained. Subjected to pressure, this interfacial zone literally serves as the wiggle room for the diamond, absorbing the shock instead of the surface and core atoms.<\/p>\n Double-checking <\/p>\n For the study, the researchers designed experiments to test about 100 different diamonds inside isolated vacuums. Smaller scales meant more risk of contaminants, so each diamond was baked at 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius) before the experiment. In each session, individual nanodiamonds were locked between two diamond indenters and connected to sensors that measured how squishy the diamond could get without fracturing.<\/p>\n Fascinatingly, the team confirmed that size truly mattered for a nanodiamond\u2019s elasticity. For instance, a 13-nanometer diamond had a similar rigidness as that found in common jewelry, whereas a smaller, 4-nanometer diamond was roughly 30% more stretchy. Using their observations, the researchers devised a fitted mathematical model to gauge diamond elasticity at nanoscales.<\/p>\n A scientist\u2019s best friend <\/p>\n For scientists, diamonds are popular less for their sparkly visuals but more for their sheer versatility. To list a few examples, the capsules storing hydrogen fuel in fusion reactors are made of diamond, meaning small defects in diamond could make or break fusion reactions<\/a>. Physicists are also seriously considering diamonds as tiny data storage units in quantum devices<\/a>. In less futuristic applications, diamonds are already prime components of key manufacturing processes<\/a>.<\/p>\n This idea clearly wasn\u2019t lost on the researchers, who concluded that their findings illuminate \u201cpractical knobs for nanoscale devices, [such as] nanomechanical resonators, phononic elements, and diamond-based quantum sensors.\u201d Assuming the latest study checks out, this could mean that researchers now have the ability to freely design more versatile, flexible components in sensitive tech.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Familiar materials will act differently at the smallest scales. Notably, diamonds\u2014typically hard and brittle\u2014grow strangely soft at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[64,63,24718,49064,292,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-625030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-physics","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-diamonds","11":"tag-material-science","12":"tag-physics","13":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Nanodiamond](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nanodiamond-under-stress.jpg\")
Images of squashed nanodiamonds captured via transmission electron microscopy. \u00a9 Shan et al., 2026 <\/p>\n![\"Nanodiamond](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nanodiamond-experiment-setup.jpg\")
A graphic representation of the experimental setup. \u00a9 Shan et al., 2026 <\/p>\n