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Under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions (15\u00a0gigapascals and 2300\u00a0kelvin), these precursors concentrate local stress, promoting nucleation of hexagonal diamond within a cubic diamond matrix and forming cubic-hexagonal heterostructures. The resulting composites exhibit exceptional hardness (169\u00a0gigapascals) and toughness (15.7\u00a0megapascals multiplied by square root of meter), representing 36 and 104% improvements over single-phase nanopolycrystalline diamond, respectively. This dual enhancement arises from stacking fault interlocking and semi\/coherent boundaries that resist deformation, coupled with phase transformation and crack deflection that dissipate fracture energy. Our results demonstrate a microstructural design paradigm for mitigating the property trade-off in superhard materials and offer a scalable strategy for engineering robust diamond-based systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.aea3692","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,31]],"date-time":"2025-10-31T17:58:57Z","timestamp":1761933537000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34133\/aaas_crossmark","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Curved graphite precursors enable cubic-hexagonal diamond heterostructures with unprecedented toughness-hardness synergy"],"prefix":"10.1126","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-3289-5593","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Xiaoci","family":"Ma","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Synergetic Extreme Condition High-Pressure Science Center, State Key Laboratory of High Pressure and Superhard Materials, and Key Laboratory of Material Simulation Methods &amp; Software of Ministry of Education, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0008-5721-2094","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Di","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Synergetic Extreme Condition High-Pressure Science Center, State Key Laboratory of High Pressure and Superhard Materials, and Key Laboratory of Material Simulation Methods &amp; 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