Superhard superlattices

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Abstract
Is it possible to make artificial materials that match or exceed the "hardness" of the two hardest known materials – diamond and cubic boron nitride? This question has long been of both basic and technological interest. Considerable excitement therefore greeted the recent theoretical prediction that the short, strong covalent bonds of a hypothetical crystal – the "hexagonal β form" of carbon nitride (C3N4) – would have a bulk modulus (and hence presumably a hardness) similar or greater than that of diamond. Unfortunately, numerous attempts to synthesize this form of carbon nitride have failed. Matching the hardness of diamond (80–100 GPa) or cubic boron nitride (50 GPa) is, it appears, no easy task (figure I).

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