The ability to change material properties through phase engineering has long been sought,
with the goal of ad hoc tunability of the physical and chemical properties of the transformed …

Carbon is an element with extremely versatile bonding properties and theoretical
calculations have suggested the possible existence of several hundred structural allotropes …

Understanding the direct transformation from graphite to diamond has been a long-standing
challenge with great scientific and practical importance. Previously proposed transformation …

Recent developments in density functional theory (DFT) methods applicable to studies of
large periodic systems are outlined. During the past three decades, DFT has become an …

The microscopic kinetics of ubiquitous solid–solid phase transitions remain poorly
understood. Here, by using single-particle-resolution video microscopy of colloidal films of …

Advances in the accuracy and efficiency of first-principles electronic structure calculations
have allowed detailed studies of the energetics of materials under high pressures. At the …

Atomically thin graphene exhibits fascinating mechanical properties, although its hardness
and transverse stiffness are inferior to those of diamond. So far, there has been no practical …

The shock-induced transition from graphite to diamond has been of great scientific and
technological interest since the discovery of microscopic diamonds in remnants of …

Graphite and diamond have comparable free energies, yet forming diamond from graphite in
the absence of a catalyst requires pressures that are significantly higher than those at …

We identify by ab initio calculations an orthorhombic carbon polymorph in P nma symmetry
that has the lowest enthalpy among proposed cold-compressed graphite phases. This new …