New Material with Near Diamond Hardness

A new noncarbon based material that is nearly as hard as a diamond!

This sounds like it could be something with a very wide range of uses, it does have some "science speak", a language I am not fluent with, but I thought I would share with the members.

Scientists Create First Non-Carbon Material with Near-Diamond Hardness

The material is a boron nitride “nanocomposite.” This means that, rather than consisting of one large continuous crystal, it is made of crystalline boron-nitride grains that are each a few to several nanometers in size. Although research groups have previously reported boron carbonitride materials, claimed to be the second and third hardest materials after diamond, the particular versions, or “phases,” of those materials were unstable at high temperatures. In industry, this is a major drawback.

“The real breakthrough would be a bulk material that is hard, tough, and thermally stable, and thus ideal for cutting and drilling. We are the first to synthesize a bulk noncarbon material that fits this description,” said Natalia Dubrovinskaia, a researcher with the University of Heidelberg and the University of Bayreuth, both in Germany, to PhysOrg.com. Dubrovinskaia is the lead author of the paper describing the new material, which appears in the March 8 edition of Applied Physics Letters.

If this is real then I can imagine not having to pay for Brake Rotors anytime soon

A car Engine Made out of this material?