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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

This material is almost as hard as diamond — but as light as graphite

A theoretical form of carbon called pentadiamond becomes thicker when stretched.
A stick-and-ball structure of atoms arranged in linked pentagons, and its projection onto three orthogonal planes.

The central pore in a pentadiamond crystal (pictured) makes the material much less dense than diamond — although of similar hardness. Credit: Yasumaru Fujii, Mina Maruyama, Nguyen Thanh Cuong, Susumu Okada

Update: The authors have published a retraction of the paper described in this article.

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Nature 583, 335 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02061-6

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