Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 5, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6447
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Funding
- Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
- Hungarian Economic Development Centre grant [HUMAN_MB08-1-2011-0012]
- Janos Bolyai Research Scholarship
- NASA Origins of Solar Systems grant [NNX11AK58G]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- DFG [DU 954-8/1]
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany) [5K13WC3, O5K2013]
- NASA [NNX11AK58G, 143176] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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Lonsdaleite, also called hexagonal diamond, has been widely used as a marker of asteroidal impacts. It is thought to play a central role during the graphite-to-diamond transformation, and calculations suggest that it possesses mechanical properties superior to diamond. However, despite extensive efforts, lonsdaleite has never been produced or described as a separate, pure material. Here we show that defects in cubic diamond provide an explanation for the characteristic d-spacings and reflections reported for lonsdaleite. Ultrahigh-resolution electron microscope images demonstrate that samples displaying features attributed to lonsdaleite consist of cubic diamond dominated by extensive {113} twins and {111} stacking faults. These defects give rise to nanometre-scale structural complexity. Our findings question the existence of lonsdaleite and point to the need for re-evaluating the interpretations of many lonsdaleite-related fundamental and applied studies.
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