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Hardest Naturally Occuring Mineral

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Silicon carbide, shown here post-assembly, is normally found as small fragments of the naturally... [+] occurring mineral moissanite. The grains can be sintered together to form complex, beautiful structures such as the one shown here in this sample of material. It is nearly as hard as diamond, and has been synthesized synthetically and known naturally since the late 1800s.Silicon carbide, shown here post-assembly, is normally found as small fragments of the naturally.

For a naturally occurring mineral, silicon carbide — found naturally in the form of moissanite — is only slightly less in hardness than diamonds. (It's still harder than any spider silk.) A chemical mix of silicon and carbon, which occupy the same family in the periodic table as one another, silicon carbide grains have been mass produced since 1893. They can be bonded together through a high-pressure but low-temperature process known as sintering to create extremely hard ceramic materials.

These materials are not only useful in a wide variety of applications that take advantage of hardness, such as car brakes and clutches, plates in bulletproof vests, and even battle armor suitable for tanks, but also have incredibly useful semiconductor properties for use in electronics.

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