The First Super-Hard Material that Doesn't Break the Bank

Materials hard enough to scratch diamonds, the hardest naturally occurring substance, are not uncommon, but they are always expensive. Researchers generally synthesize crystalline materials (like diamond) under high pressure using combinations of light elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and boron - a very expensive process.

Enter the cheaply and easily made Rhenium Diboride, a material harder than diamond that incorporates the incompressibility of a heavy metal (rhenium) with a material that forms stiff bonds (boron). By heating and mixing rhenium and boron powder in a furnace, then running a large electric current through the mixture, researchers were able to quickly melt the materials, allowing the formation of small ingots. Although shiny like a metal, the material is "nearly as hard as cubic boron nitride and boron suboxide, two of the hardest materials known, and like them can scratch diamond. It should also be able to cut steel without reacting chemically with the iron."

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