There's a very good reason to use sapphire: since it has a (slightly) lower hard... | Hacker News

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		adambard on March 21, 2013 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Your next smartphone might use sapphire glass inst... There's a very good reason to use sapphire: since it has a (slightly) lower hardness than diamond, you can cut it into sheets with a diamond saw. Sapphire still has a very high hardness, much better than glass of any sort.

46Bit on March 21, 2013 [–]

If we fast forward 20 years, I wonder if we could be a graphene 'sawing' diamond?

Xcelerate on March 21, 2013 | [–]

Graphene's just a one atom thick sheet of graphite ;)

(Source: I research graphene.)

46Bit on March 21, 2013 | | [–]

Given that much of Graphite's weakness is due to sliding sheets, I was under the impression a single sheet would be far stronger?

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