How are artificial diamonds made?

[Szech]

I was wondering this, because I am obsessed with the idea of making a diamond contact plate. Here at my work, I have access to machining equipment, a 100 ton press, a 400 ton press, and an induction heated spray facility. I was thinking about machining a small hallowed capsule, putting carbon inside, and leaving it in the 400 ton press, but everyone tells me it won't work. A friend told me that I need something that would start the crystal growth structure.

Can someone explain how I could do this, or explain why it is impossible to do this with the materials I have?

Thank you!

 

[Bender]

I don't exactly know how it is done but it requires extreme pressure and heat. The only diamond substance they have been able to make is a small very thin coating or sheet. I believe they use microwave technology to create the heat. I don't think the technology exists yet to make a plate thick enough for any good use. Wouldn't it would be very cool to have diamond coated scratch proof sunglasses.

 

[Pitspawn]

I've actually seen a documentary on this and its weird. What they do is get real diamonds and take tiny extracts from them. Then they get pressurised tubes and put these extracts and put them at the base and grow them in some way.

The problem with artificial diamonds are that they are very different to real diamonds. Here are the differences...

1...Real diamonds are worth more (duh)
2...Fake diamonds glow in the dark
3...Fake diamonds have a brown discolouration
4...Fake diamonds have slightly different physical properties (Dont know them all but the atomical structure is the same which is the important part).
5...Fake diamonds take AGES to grow. It takes so long that it actually still costs quite a bit to make fake diamonds so dont think you will be saving that much on fake diamonds. Probably 4-5 times cheaper i'd say.

 

[Kingslayer]

Pitspawn. You are the closest in how they do this.

They take tiny extracts from real diamonds. That is correct, everything else is far from the process. What they do is they take these extracts and plant them. Usually around late fall. Then they are watered a solution of ordinary tap water and MiracleGrow in a 5-%-50% solution.

Usually around early summer (depends on the spring frost) the full artificial diamonds are then harvested. It is a rather simple process. It is based on a process that was created "many moons" ago.

Odd how you would think that creating diamonds is this easy. You would think it would take things like big mocrowaves and presses and computer controled environments. Neat huh.

[1]it's a joke.....[/1]

 

[Plat]

HAHAHAHA

this is for fun right guys?

cubic zirconia

that's a "fake" diamond, but it isn't fake. it's only fake because debeers corporation says so. the chemical make up is very similar to the "real" diamonds, one exception, cubics are more PURE. ironic huh. it's the flaws, the minute particles of dirt in the diamond that gives it it's fire, brilliance color etc.

diamond is the worst aspect of marketing, its a product w/ absolutely no value other than what the market or people attribute to it.

if you were to price a diamond purely on its merits, other than to impress other people there would be nothing a diamond could do that a cubic zirconia couldn't do better. NOTHING.

i know this is a little OT, but it really sticks in my craw what debeers gets away with because they completely control the diamond market.

 

[JigPu]

I know the've made them out of peanut butter...

Creamy or crunchy?
JigPu

 

[Nevin]

Re: How are artificial diamonds made?

OK, first Superman holds this big piece of coal betweeen his hands...

 

[Bender]

"The Constable at the wizzo chocolate factory. #4 crunchy frog... You don't even take the bones out? If we took the bones out it wouldn't be crunchy now would it." Monty Python

Oh sorry wrong forum. I still think artificial diamonds have something to do with Supermans lazer vision and super human squishing power.

Something special will happen on my 700th posts so keep your eyes pealed. Hint : H--y ------------ --- fill in the blank. Don't tell anyone if you know what it is.

 

[*spazzed*]

Actually I read somewhere that real diamond is quite cheap in the pure form, it's just the cost of machining that makes it really expensive.........
dunno if it's 100% true though

 

[Frost Byte]

I don't know how well a real diamond would transfer heat but i know they are condutive. My old chemistry teacher told me once that they held an experiment to see the difference between diamonds and Cubit Ziconians (i have no idea how to spell it). They had a simple battery to light a light bulb and but one wire and pressed it aginst the diamond (like how a switch works) and they took the oter end of that wire and touched it to the bulb and diamond so if the diamond was real the blub would light up. He said this one lady volenteered to let them use her engagement ring for the test and it didnt' light up and she left crying because her boyfriend said it was real!

 

[samuknow]

Actually that is the best way to tell a "real" diamond from a "fake" one. There is a tool used that tests how fast it transfers heat. A "real" diamond is much faster.

BTW did I miss the part about cooling?

 

[Szech]

Yuk yuk yuk guys...

My coworker saw me reading your replies, and he told me again that we don't have the facilities to do it. So... I guess this is yet another broken dream .

BTW, diamonds transfer heat very well. Copper's thermal conductivity is 390 W/m·K, CuSil's is 515 W/m·K, and Diamond's is ~2000 W/m·K.

I can dream, can't I?

 

[el]

You guys are all fools it takes heat and pressure to make a diamond.

first you take teh hsf off your AMD tbird replace with a pound of coal don't forget a ORB cooler with regular clip! then overclock it to 1.7ghz and run seti for an hour. that is it. just be careful removing the orb as you might destroy the diamond by scratching it or chiping it!!!!! ;-)

 

[zoopa_man]

Don't fake dialmonds have a faint yellowish tint to them ? I saw a NOVA about this. But don't remembe what material they used as a sceed. But it took a huge amount of heat and pressure to get this itty bitty fake dialmond. And if I remember correctly the fake had a small yellowish tint to it. There real problem isn't making them, it's geting rid of this yellow tint. A lot of people don't want that kind of research to go on because it would then be very difficult to tell the difference between real and fake dialmonds.

 

[Crash893]

Technologies of RRC Kurchatov Institute
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Artificial Diamond Coating and Thin Film Technologies
The new method of producting films of artificial amorphous diamond has been developed at the RRC:

at low pressure;
at low temperature;
by means of ion spraying of pure graphite.

This is a universal technique that allows to produce films of any metals, oxides, nitrides, etc. within one and the same process.
This method allows to produce artificial diamonds in coating form virtually on any solid bases, to produce multilayer coatings with semiconductor properties, as well as unattached films of an artificial diamond.
The artificial diamond produced with this new method possesses enhanced mechanical properties. Thus, it surpasses natural diamond in strength by a factor of 3-4, and in hardness - by a factor of 2-3.
When applied to a product, the diamond films allow to increase its service life at least tenfold.
Advantages:

the coating is applied without heating of a product;
high class of a product surface finish is retained after the coating has been applied;
formation of ultra-thin (3-10 continuous films;
absence of essential limitations as to a product overall dimensions (up to several square meters);
the original technology is protected under the author's certificates in Russian Federation, it is patented in the U.S., United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and France.

The technology allows to produce coatings of an artificial diamond with an amorphous structure (amorphous diamond):
0.3 nm to 3 mm thick;
to apply coatings on both sides of flat products at a time;
to apply coatings on complex geometry products;
to apply coatings on products of metal, glass, ceramic and some kinds of plastic.

Level of readiness: the experimental system for application of the coatings is built at the RRC.
Proposals:

delivery of installations for application of the coatings;
development of special-purpose systems;
vending of a license for the method.
Characteristics

Mohs' scratch hardness 10
Microhardness, kg/mm (2-3) * 104
Tensile strength, kg/mm2 700-800
Modulus of elasticity, kg/mm2 150000
Density, g/mm2 3.4-3.6
Adhesion to carbon steel, kg/mm2 600
Refractive index 2.6
Electric strength, V/cm 2 * 106
Specific electric resistance of 5 * 106
non-alloyed material at T = 200 C, ohm * cm
Thermal coefficient of resistance Negative
Chemical resistance Is not reactive in boiling HNO3, aqua regia, does not oxidize in chromic mixtures at T=3000C.
Heat resistance of the diamond film,0C 400

tel: (095) 196 9997
fax: (095) 196 7262
E-mail: [email protected]
RRC Kurchatov Institute

 

[It_The_Cow]

zoopa_man (Jul 18, 2001 03:04 p.m.):
Don't fake dialmonds have a faint yellowish tint to them ? I saw a NOVA about this. But don't remembe what material they used as a sceed. But it took a huge amount of heat and pressure to get this itty bitty fake dialmond. And if I remember correctly the fake had a small yellowish tint to it. There real problem isn't making them, it's geting rid of this yellow tint. A lot of people don't want that kind of research to go on because it would then be very difficult to tell the difference between real and fake dialmonds.

Aluminum

 

[eobard]

I saw the documentary on NOVA too. One point that hasn't been mentioned yet you need three dimensional pressure, not just a strong hydraulic press. You'd need some kind of press that works like the chuck on a drill. When you tighten the chuck on a drill to hold the bit in place the three pieces that hold it in place move closer together but they also move forward. If you had a setup like that then you could have the top to bottom pressure and the side to side / front to back pressure you'd need. It was a very involved procedure on NOVA, I don't know what equipment you have access to but from what I saw its beyond most people's means.

 

[Szech]

Crash893, do you have any more information on that, or the source of that information? That has me very intrigued, because the lab to which I am officially assigned has equipment that does exactly that. Material is heated in the top chamber with an induction coil, then it goes through an atomizer, then the spray goes through another induction coil before it lands on the bottom part of the chamber.

New vision... I put my heatsink, contact side up in the chamber, then spray diamond on it. It has negative thermal resistance. NICE

 

[*spazzed*]

hmmmmmmm.......now if only I had over 100million bucks, I could make a heatsink out of pure diamond ;D

 

[inertia]

Plat, I hope you were kidding.

Cubic Zirconia (ZrO2) is crap. It is in no way superior to diamond (C). It should NEVER be described as being a diamond. Diamond is the hardest substance known to man. Have you tried to cut glass with CZ? Well, don't because it'd be a waste of time. Also, the industrial uses of CZ include use as an electrical and thermal INSULATOR. Not as a conductor.

Additionally, it's the refraction off of the crystal lattice that give diamonds their brilliance. The color is determined by the impurities.

Fake diamonds are yellow due to incomplete conversion of the graphite used in making the diamond. Because C has four electrons in its valence shell, it does what is called hybridizing which allows it to make four atomic bonds. In a diamond these four bonds are to four different carbon atoms. In graphite two or more of these bonds are to the same other carbon atom. This destroys the crystal structure and allows these electrons more freedom to absorb light at visible wavelengths turning them yellow.

DeBeers does in fact control the diamond market and keep supplies artificially low so to inflate their price. In the US members of the family are wanted for monopoly and trust violations. Don't buy diamonds, they won't appreciate in the long run.