Yep, they are both made of carbon.

So, welcome to a mini series that gives you some seriously cool (and serious) info about diamonds that you may not have come across while researching your engagement ring, pendant or whatever diamond thing you are currently after. All the main stuff you should know is on the Diamond Education area.

Right, diamonds and tennis racquets. First a ‘101’ on carbon. Carbon is an element (that makes up 18% of your body) that has three allotropes:

  • Diamond
  • Graphite
  • Fullerite

Simply put-three different forms of carbon found on our planet. The first one happens to be that amazing sparkly hard material that we all know, love and want to own tons of. In its natural state, it is a clear crystal and one of the hardest materials on the planet. Graphite however is soft, much weaker than diamond and happens to be black in its natural state.

Fullerite is a recently discovered mineral made of perfectly spherical molecules consisting of exactly 60 carbon atoms.

Nowadays, the main material used in high end tennis racquets is graphite as it allows them to be very light but very robust at the same time. As I learned on About.com however, this graphite is not in fact the same as that you find in pencils but a carbon fiber that ads stiffness and strength to the resin frame. Not what you’d get if you tried to make a racquet with diamonds!

Isn’t nature fascinating!?

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