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Figure 8
Diamond is a fascinating material, to some degree `the king of crystals'. Not only is it the most expensive gem and the hardest known material but it is also part of a family of crystalline structures formed exclusively by carbon atoms and with properties that are as amazing and valuable as the diamond itself. This family of polymorphs (crystals with the same chemical composition but different structure) includes graphite and also the fullerenes, carbon nanotubes and graphene. All of them are different forms of ordering carbon atoms, and some of them can play a very important role in the history of humanity. Do you know what the relationship is between the different carbon polymorphs? Have you ever wondered how the quality of a diamond is assessed? Did you know that a square-metre two-dimensional sheet of graphene is capable of supporting four kilograms in weight?

Journal logoJOURNAL OF
APPLIED
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
ISSN: 1600-5767
Volume 48| Part 4| August 2015| Pages 1264-1275
https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576715007724
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