Super hard components and powder metallurgy methods of making the same

A method of forming a super hard polycrystalline construction, comprising:

• forming a liquid suspension of a first mass of graphene and a mass of particles or grains of super hard material;
• dispersing the graphene and mass of super hard particles or grains in the liquid suspension to form a substantially homogeneous suspension;
• drying the suspension to form an admix of the graphene and super hard grains or particles;
• forming a pre-sinter assembly comprising the admix;
• treating the pre-sinter assembly in the presence of a catalyst/solvent material for the super hard grains at an ultra-high pressure of around 5 GPa or greater and a temperature to sinter together the grains of super hard material to form a body of polycrystalline super hard material comprising a first fraction of super hard grains and a second fraction of diamond grains, the super hard grains exhibiting inter-granular bonding and defining a plurality of interstitial regions therebetween;
• the graphene being at least partially converted to diamond during the sintering stage to form the second fraction;
• wherein
• the super hard grains in the first fraction are bonded along at least a portion of the peripheral surface to at least a portion of a plurality of diamond grains in the second fraction;
• the super hard grains in the first fraction having a greater average grain size than the average grain size of the grains in the second fraction, the average grain size of the diamond grains in the second fraction being between around 60 nm to around 1 micron.