As one of the hardest materials on Earth, diamonds find themselves the benchmark for much materials science research, as engineers work to fashion tough new structures that can outperform the best nature has to offer.

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A team at University of California, Irvine (UCI) has now created a nanoscale carbon lattice that boasts a much greater strength-to-density ratio than diamonds. The new design developed by the UCI research team is what’s known as a nanolattice. These porous structures consist of struts and braces made from carbon (just like diamonds themselves), which are arranged into a three-dimensional lattice pattern that offers an excellent strength-to-density ratio.

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For decades, these nanolattices have been based on a design that uses trusses arranged in a cylindrical manner. The UCI researchers attribute their breakthrough to a departure from this tradition, instead using […]

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