What's the hardest thing (element/metal/whatever) that is also not brittle?

Question

Diamond is brittle...
Diamond is harder than Titanium...
Titanium will melt under super high heat...

So what's the hardest thing (if possible, as hard as a diamond) but not as brittle as a diamond?

And please have an explaination to your answer.

I heard that there was this new thing called a aggregated diamond nanorod thingy that is harder than diamond.

But question is...is it shock resistant (like ultrahard fullerite for example, is shock resistant to a lot of things)? Enough to take a rifle bullet and come out flawless?

Answer 1

Answer would still be diamond. It is not brittle. It does break, but only with lot of hammering (unless it has cracks). Is there a specific task you have in mind for this substence or a quantitaitve cut-off of brittleness or ductility that diamond does not satisfy?

Answer 2

don't know about Tungsten whatever, but it will definitely be an alloy because the whole purpose of creating an alloy is to engineer a "better" substance.

No single element will be as hard as possible, as heat resistance as possible, as non-brittle as possible, etc.

that means there will be thousands of choices, so one needs to make a spreadsheet with ALL the properties u want to consider then fill in the blanks and choose - there will probably be some trade offs - cause nothing is perfect.

Answer 3

Ultrahard Fullerite is very hard but is not an alloy.

Aluminium Oxide is also very hard - scoring 9 on the mohs scale (Al2 O3) - but again this is not an alloy.

I would say the hardest is either Silicon Carbide or Titanium Carbide.

Answer 4

Tungsten Vanadium Superalloys.

Answer 5

there is an element in the periodic table (obviously) that is known as osmium at. num. 76;;;;;

this is to date the densest thing in the world and it is also known to have the highest tensile strength............
hope you find it useful