Boron carbide
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Boron carbide is an extremely hard boron–carbon ceramic, a covalent material used in tank armor, bulletproof vests, engine sabotage powders, as well as numerous industrial applications. With a Vickers
Boron carbide
Plastic embedded with boron carbide used as shielding in neutron experiments at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, UK
Boron carbide is used for inner plates of ballistic vests
Diamond
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Diamond is a mineral form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is a tasteless, odorless, strong, brittle solid, a poor conductor of electr
Boron carbide
…well as numerous industrial applications. With a Vickers hardness of >30 GPa, it is one of the hardest known materials, behind cubic boron nitride and diamond. Boron carbide was first noticed by Henri Moissan (Nobel Prize of chemistry in 1906) in 1894 as a by-product of reactions involving metal borides, but…
A rough diamond
Main diamond producing countries (in French)
One face of an uncut octahedral diamond, showing trigons (of positive and negative relief) formed by natural chemical etching
The extreme hardness of diamond in certain orientations makes it useful in materials science, as in this pyramidal diamond embedded in the working surface of a Vickers hardness tester.