Dr Ben Green, Associate Professor, Physics Department, University of Warwick said:

"The tantalising material properties of hexagonal diamond (lonsdaleite) have long been recognised but the material has resisted efforts to synthesise it with any reliability – most reports use the shockwaves from explosives to produce trace amounts. The process presented in the paper differs from one of the conventional diamond synthesis methods (high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT)) primarily by its extreme pressure requirements. Most catalytic HPHT diamond synthesis occurs around 7 GPa, with some direct conversion processes utilising up to 16 GPa: this new method requires 30+ GPa (approximately 300,000x standard atmospheric pressure). Synthesising this material at industrial scale presents significant engineering and material challenges, as these extreme pressures are unavailable in commercial high pressure presses over large sample synthesis volumes. There are significant challenges to overcome before this material can be used at scale, but if a method could be found to e.g., produce bulk quantities or coat other materials in it, then depending on price it might find industrial use: the most obvious application is cutting (possibly including other diamonds!)."