Growth of diamond from fullerene C60 by spark plasma sintering

► Diamonds start to form at 1150 °C under 50 MPa in the SPS. ► Polycrystalline diamonds up to 250 μm were obtained at 1300 °C. ► The high sp3 hybrid fraction in C60 leads to the diamond formation at such conditions. ► It is a direct transition to diamond with atom structural reconstructions.