The hardest, most beautiful and most expensive minerals in the world are diamonds. They are formedat a depth of about 200 kilometersunderground under conditions of high pressure and 1000-degree heat.High temperatures and pressures over billions of years affect carbon, and it turns into a beautiful mineral with a crystalline structure. From the depths of our planet, diamonds rise to the surface as a result of volcanic activity. It is very difficult to extract this precious material, which is why it costs a lot of money. Over time, scientists have learned to make artificial diamonds from carbon that are completely identical to real ones. There really is no difference between them, but artificial stones are cheaper because their production does not take billions of years, but only a few weeks. It seems that artificial diamonds will soon become even more accessible, because scientists have found away to produce them in 150 minutes.
A beautiful diamond can be created in the laboratory in just 2.5 hours
< p class="toc_title">Contents
- 1 How artificial diamonds are created
- 1.1 Chemical vapor deposition
- 1.2 What is it HPHT diamonds
- 2 The fastest way to create diamonds
How artificial diamonds are created
The first step towards creating artificial diamonds was made more than 200 years ago. Then the English chemist Smithson Tennant managed to completely burn a real diamond. After this experiment, scientists learned for the first time that the precious mineral consists entirely of pure carbon. After some time, scientists reversed the process and learned to turn carbon back into diamonds. Today, there are several ways to produce synthetic diamonds.
English chemist Smithson Tennant is the father of artificial diamonds. Image source: Smithsonian Magazine
The most basic article on the topic:How diamonds are mined and where they come from
Chemical vapor deposition
The first technology is calledchemical vapor deposition (CVD).When using this method, specialists create a special chamber with controlled pressure and temperature. Then one of the gases containing carbon, for example, methane, is pumped inside it. This time it goes through filters so that in the end only pure carbon remains. The resulting carbon atoms subsequently settle on the surface of a special substrate, forming a diamond.
Artificial diamonds can come in different shapes, colors and sizes. Image source: Russian Jeweler Magazine
This is also interesting:Scientists have explained how diamonds rise from the depths to the surface of the Earth
What are HPHT diamonds
There are also HPHT diamonds.With this technology, a substance that contains carbon (for example, graphite) is also placed in a chamber with high temperature and pressure. Being in conditions like in the depths of the Earth, carbon begins to turn into crystals. After cooling, crystallography specialists obtain an artificial gemstone.
Whatever technology is used, artificial diamonds are of the same quality. Image source: Phone Arena
This is a very short and simplified description of how to create artificial diamonds. Any technology requires the use of very high temperatures of more than 1000 degrees Celsius and pressure, as in the depths of the Earth. The process of creating synthetic diamonds takes, although not a billion years, several weeks. Recently, scientistsreduced this time to 150 minutes.
Read also:Scientists have artificially created diamonds and a new type of water from plastic
The fastest way to create diamonds
The authors of the new crystal manufacturing technology are scientists from South Korea. To create diamonds stillrequires temperatures in the region of 1025 degrees Celsius.However, the new technologyrequires only 1 atmosphere of pressurethis is about the same as the pressure at sea level. Usually, tens of thousands of times more pressure is required to form crystals from carbon. And most importantly, the process takes only 150 minutes, that is, about 2.5 hours.
The essence of the new technology is that scientists dissolved pure carbon in a complex mixture of liquid metals. Thanks to the use of gallium, iron, nickel and silicon, they managed to reduce the pressure requirements. The molten metals were poured into a graphite body using a vacuum system that allows the mixture to be quickly heated and cooled. Scientists used a mixture of methane and hydrogen as a source of pure carbon.
Diamond film grown in liquid metal under a microscope. Image source: scientific journal Nature
Under the conditions created by the liquid metal, the carbon released from methane began to turn into crystals. The rudiments of diamonds began to form on the surface already 15 minutes after the start of the process. And after 2.5 hours, scientists received a continuous diamond film. Scientists believe that in the future they will be able to achieve even more impressive results. For example, they hope to get more diamonds by simply increasing the surface to form a diamond film.
Every day, informative articles appear in our Telegram channel that are not on the site. Be sure to subscribe and read!
If the new technology takes root, the cost of diamonds may decrease significantly. But this only applies to artificial jewelry; real diamonds, which have been formed in the depths of our planet for billions of years, will always be highly valued. The most expensive diamond in the world is pink, and its price is especially higher because it was formed under even more difficult conditions than the others.