Diamond has not just one but many truly unique properties, which include the following: (1) It is the most covalent of all solids; (2) It is the only semiconductor with nearly equal electron and hole mobility; (3) It is the hardest bulk material; (4) It is the purest material occurring in nature.
Which factor is mainly responsible for so many unique properties?
Correct
My guess is that diamond's unique formation plays the dominant role. The formation of diamond requires such unique conditions - extremely high temperature and extremely high pressure. The truth also may lie in the chemical-bond-wise difference between graphite and diamond - covalent bond is 2D in the former while it is 3D in the latter. The realisation of the covalent bond in the third dimension requires such abnormal conditions!
The basic is: In carbon atom only inner 1S2 electrons (weakly) shields the positive nucleus, so it has the strongest SP3 hybridization, hence consistency of bond angles & length = strength of the structure. But(secondary) to get such a structure the extreme conditions are necessary.
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