Diamonds can now be created from scratch in the lab in just 15 minutes
Scientists have revolutionized diamond synthesis with a groundbreaking method that creates diamonds at room temperature and pressure.
The diamonds produced using this method are minuscule, hundreds of thousands of times smaller than those grown with the HPHT method. Hence, these diamonds are far too small for jewelry applications.
Ah, there's the catch.
They should really start with this
Diamond industry is just a scam, see the documentary " Nothing lasts forever ".
Abstract
Natural diamonds were (and are) formed (thousands of million years ago) in the upper mantle of Earth in metallic melts at temperatures of 900–1,400 °C and at pressures of 5–6 GPa (refs. 1,2). Diamond is thermodynamically stable under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions as per the phase diagram of carbon3. Scientists at General Electric invented and used a high-pressure and high-temperature apparatus in 1955 to synthesize diamonds by using molten iron sulfide at about 7 GPa and 1,600 °C (refs. 4,5,6). There is an existing model that diamond can be grown using liquid metals only at both high pressure and high temperature7. Here we describe the growth of diamond crystals and polycrystalline diamond films with no seed particles using liquid metal but at 1 atm pressure and at 1,025 °C, breaking this pattern. Diamond grew in the subsurface of liquid metal composed of gallium, iron, nickel and silicon, by catalytic activation of methane and diffusion of carbon atoms into and within the subsurface regions. We found that the supersaturation of carbon in the liquid metal subsurface leads to the nucleation and growth of diamonds, with Si playing an important part in stabilizing tetravalently bonded carbon clusters that play a part in nucleation. Growth of (metastable) diamond in liquid metal at moderate temperature and 1 atm pressure opens many possibilities for further basic science studies and for the scaling of this type of growth.
Just a thought, but could these tiny diamonds be used to coat the surface of car tires to lower the amount of micro plastics they emit?
