Scientists have melted diamond at pressures exceeding one terapascal, a state far hotter than the surface of the Sun, and observed that the material behaved in unexpected ways. The experiments, reported by ZME Science and detailed in a study published in Nature, used shock compression to achieve these extreme conditions.
The research team found that when diamond is melted under such intense pressure, its liquid form exhibits properties that differ from theoretical predictions. According to ZME Science, the behavior of the molten diamond was "very strange," with the material not responding as models had suggested it would. The findings were also covered by ScienceAlert, which noted that the results did not go as researchers had expected.
The experiments involved compressing diamond samples to pressures of around one terapascal, or roughly 10 million times atmospheric pressure at sea level. At these conditions, the diamond transitions from a solid to a liquid state, but the liquid's structure and dynamics appear to be more complex than previously understood.
The implications of this work extend beyond basic materials science. As reported by The Brighter Side of News and Interesting Engineering, understanding diamond's extreme melting point could help improve laser-driven nuclear fusion experiments. In such setups, diamond is often used as a component in targets, and knowing how it behaves under extreme pressure and temperature could lead to better energy yields. Interesting Engineering reported that this breakthrough could potentially deliver a threefold increase in energy gain in laser-driven fusion.
The study highlights how little is known about materials at terapascal pressures, a regime relevant to planetary interiors and fusion research. Future work will likely focus on refining models of liquid carbon and testing how these findings apply to other high-pressure applications.
