美國科學家發現新物質“比鑽石還硬”

There is a new substance that is harder than diamond. It's called Q-carbon, and it was created by researchers at North Carolina State University.
北卡羅萊納州立大學的研究人員研發出一種名爲“Q-碳”的新物質，其硬度比鑽石還高。

"The only place it may be found in the natural world would be possibly in the core of some planets," Jay Narayan, lead author on the papers describing the work, said in a statement.
研究論文的第一作者傑伊·納拉楊在聲明中說：“自然界中，可能也就只有在某些行星的內核處能找到這種物質了。”

Before its discovery, there were two distinct forms of solid carbon: graphite and diamond. Q-carbon is not only harder than diamond, but also glows when exposed to low levels of energy. That could make it very useful for creating strong, bright screens for electronic devices.
該物質被發現前，固體碳只有兩種不同形態：石墨和鑽石。Q-碳不僅硬度比鑽石高，處於低能量狀態下還能發光。這種特性使它尤其適用於製造電子設備堅硬、明亮的顯示屏。

Researchers created the Q-carbon by blasting material covered in amorphous carbon (i.e. carbon without a crystalline structure) with a single laser pulse.
要想生成Q-碳，研究人員需利用單脈衝激光衝激材料表面的無定形碳（即無晶體結構的碳）。

They can cool the material to create either Q-carbon or tiny diamonds. Those diamonds could be used to build things such as microneedles for medical use, or electronics that can withstand extremely high temperatures for other industries.
然後將材料冷卻，即可得到Q-碳或碎鑽。這種鑽石可以用來製作醫用微型針頭，或是用來製造能耐極端高溫的工業電子元件。

"And it is all done at room temperature and at ambient atmosphere — we're basically using a laser like the ones used for laser eye surgery," Narayan said. "So, not only does this allow us to develop new applications, but the process itself is relatively inexpensive."
“這一系列過程都是在室溫和普通的大氣環境下完成的，我們所用的激光也和眼部激光手術用的那種差不多，”納拉楊說道。“因此，我們不僅能繼續研發這種物質的新用途，而且研發成本也相對低廉。”

Vocabulary
graphite：石墨
microneedle：顯微操作針