Here ya go, Asmo

[Escape Artist]

Recall a mention of something related...

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7926

[Asmodeus]

*smokes starts coming out of ears as brain gets into gear, forgot the clutch*

Practical aplications abound. SAWEET!

But:

If used as coating on deep core drill bits or as the bits themselves: the cost becomes most prohibitive. Diamonds are expensive enough but a constructed material? Afraid to say that will cause oil prices to further increase unless another less expensive method of mass producing the stuff comes about.

Also: military applications- coating of tanks, etc. Or, amalgamation of this material and high density steel meshed together. Tanks become much lighter, faster, etc.

Or, cost aside: pressure meshed into titanium molecules/semi-liquid... wow! Very light, very dense, very hard material... can anyone say new space shuttle tiles for re-entry? Hmmm...

Why it was related EA: was my idear about certain shaped molecules being used as superconductors... nothing in the artical said one thing about electrical properties. Gonna have to do some research or try to find some of it meself and run some tests.

Mega kudos EA. Thankyee.

[Escape Artist]

Well, it expands the subject a bit...on the other hand, I ain't no engineer, so it could be entirely useless to your side project. I figgered similar processes *might* be usable to get a uniform conductor, or something to that effect. :p

Far as I know some companies been producing a large amount of synthesized diamonds for a while now - they aren't good enough for jewelry applications as the gem size is incredibly small, but the industrial applications were perfect for the resultant stuff.

Doing the same with buckyballs isn't going to be that different; just a different form of carbon goes into the pressure vessels.

The drilling/oil industry - hard to say there. The bits are already damned expensive...and I reckon they tend to wear out pretty fast as is. Slightly better abrasives at a similar cost should lower prices a bit. Factor in labor and jobsite time and it might save a lot. Have to wait and see on that.

Lot of possible applications, mass production seems to remain the hard part.