Twinning formation in nanodiamonds after treatment in a planetary mill: HRTEM studies

Abstract

Abstract The structure of a powder obtained as a result of processing a mixture of silicon and nano-diamond (1:4 weight ratio) in a planetary mill was studied by transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the obtained material includes diamond nanoparticles with an average grain size of 10 nm, having twins and lonsdaleite interlayers. In the present work, the plastic deformation of the diamond was detected at a temperature below 420 K by the mechanism of mechanical twinning, and the maximum stress in the diamond under the experimental conditions was found to not exceed 6 GPa, which is below the critical shear stresses for diamonds (55 GPa).