On April 24, 2024, Nature published a major breakthrough. Scientists discovered a way to synthesize diamonds. This new technology does not even require crystal seeds.
Synthesize diamonds under normal atmospheric pressure in just 15 minutes! It is understood that this technology was invented by the research team of the Multidimensional Carbon Materials Center of the Korea Institute of Basic Sciences. team
Professor Rodney Ruoff, the person in charge, said in an interview with livescience.com, “This groundbreaking breakthrough is the result of human wisdom, unremitting efforts and the concerted efforts of many collaborators.
The result of collaborative efforts. I have been thinking about new ways to grow diamonds for over a decade because I thought it might be possible to achieve this through non-traditional means. "Relevant research
The research results were published in the journal Nature under the title "Growth of diamond in liquid metal at 1 atm pressure"! This also marks a major breakthrough in diamond production technology.
Broken, providing more possibilities for future industrial applications. ? Diamonds last forever, will one last forever?
Diamonds are forever, one lasts forever! Have you heard this popular advertising slogan? Some people call it the most wonderful marketing scam of the twentieth century, while others say that its success
Gong is a textbook classic case in the history of modern marketing. No matter how you evaluate it, in 1949, this advertisement was like a love explosion, resounding all over the world, and successfully
Bringing diamonds to the market.
However, in recent years, the technology of cultivated diamonds has continued to mature, the price has been cut in half, and its status has fallen from the altar to the people, making it no longer rare. You can even create a professional diamond with your own hands.
Belongs to diamond.
Generally speaking, diamonds are formed deep in the earth's mantle after billions of years of high-pressure and high-temperature environments. But now, someone has synthesized diamonds in only 15 minutes.
Over the past few decades, scientists have used methods to synthesize diamonds in the laboratory based on replicating the conditions in the Earth's mantle, using tremendous pressure and ultra-high temperatures to induce the transformation of carbon into diamonds.
This method, known as high-pressure and high-temperature growth (HPHT), is energy-intensive and time-consuming (weeks) and has limited yields.
Professor Rodney Ruoff, a chemist at the Korea Institute of Basic Science, and his colleagues developed a new technology that is very different from HPHT: they do not need to replicate the fiery furnace inside the Earth.
It's a very simple way to run the process at standard atmospheric pressure; the secret lies in a purpose-built chamber and the use of gallium, a metal that catalyzes the formation of graphene from methane. In 15 minutes, a diamond is produced. It is understood that the new method developed by the team is based on a liquid metal mixture and can produce diamonds in a few minutes without the need for
Squeeze hard. That is, at 1 atmospheric pressure and moderate temperature, the researchers introduced carbon-rich superheated methane gas into a special chamber (9 liters), which contained a gas chamber containing gallium, nickel,
A crucible of a mixed liquid metal alloy such as iron and a small amount of silicon can rapidly evaporate when the mixed liquid metal is exposed to a mixture of methane and hydrogen in a special graphite shell vacuum system.
Heating and cooling, thereby reducing the required pressure. This environment allows the carbon atoms in the methane to penetrate into the molten metal, forming the "seeds" of diamonds.
It only takes 15 minutes for diamond deposits to form on the bottom of the crucible. Although the new method still requires a high temperature environment, that is, about 1,025°C, after 15 minutes at normal temperature and pressure (1 atmosphere),
Small fragments of diamond crystals begin to squeeze out of the liquid metal, forming a continuous diamond film in just 150 minutes. It is worth mentioning that this stress condition is related to my
The pressure we feel is equivalent to that at sea level, far lower than the tens of thousands of times the pressure required by traditional methods. Researchers believe that while dissolving carbon into liquid metal to create diamonds
The methods are not new, for example General Electric used a process of molten iron sulfide half a century ago, but these traditional methods still require extremely high pressures (5-6 GigaPascals)
and a diamond "seed" as an attachment point. The mechanism is still under study! This approach may change the diamond industry landscape! Although the crystalline carbon concentration formed is at a depth of several hundred nanometers
There is a slight decrease here, but the synthetic diamond is almost a pure carbon crystal with only a small amount of impurity silicon atoms. The exact mechanism of this new method is still being studied, Rodney
Professor Ruoff believes that the temperature drop in the reaction chamber will condense the carbon and crystallize it to obtain diamond. Silicon appears to play a key role in this process - and could be the booster gold
Seed crystal for diamond crystal growth. However, researchers are also confident about the future of this method. The research team plans to study other liquid metal alloys and gases, and even
It is solid carbon, and it is hoped that diamonds can be made from these materials. They believe that with some simple adjustments, such as configuring the heating element to take advantage of a larger surface or interface, or
By distributing carbon to the diamond growth area in a new way, diamonds can be grown over a large area. "A general approach to using liquid metals," the researchers wrote in the paper
Can accelerate and promote diamond growth on a variety of surfaces, possibly even on small diamond (seed) particles. “This technology will undoubtedly bring significant benefits to the diamond manufacturing industry.
A new dawn. Currently, the manufacturing process for most synthetic diamonds takes days and greater pressure and is widely used in a variety of industrial manufacturing, electronics and even quantum computers
middle. If this new technology can fulfill its potential, the landscape of the diamond industry will change!