If I put a piece of charcoal in a metal clamp (for pressure) and set the focal point of a fresnel lense on the charcoal (for heat) would this be enough to squeeze the carbon atoms in the charcoal together to form diamond lattice?

The formation of natural diamond requires very specific conditions—exposure of carbon-bearing materials to high pressure, ranging approximately between 45 and 60 kilobars, but at a comparatively low temperature range between approximately 1650–2370 °F (900–1300 °C). These conditions are met in two places on Earth; in the lithospheric mantle below relatively stable continental plates, and at the site of a meteorite strike.[33]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond#Natural_history

 

I'm going to go with no on that one...

no. for a variety of reasons.

 

1/ charcoal is anything but pure carbon. it has a mass of impurities in it. you can see a fraction of them with the ash leftover.

 

2/ the clamp will not be able to provide sufficient pressure

 

3/ your lens will not be able to deliver sufficient heat to do it in your lifetime

 

4/ your carbon is exposed to the atmosphere meaning you will merely ignite it.

 

If it was that easy then diamond would be common place by now.

 

chemical vapour deposition should be possible to do at home although will still be finiky and difficult to get right without proper equipment. you can do it at 800*C and 27kPa absolute with a 1:99 mix of methane and hydrogen.

 

but unless you have some diamond anvils then you aren't going to be able to get the high temperatures or pressures necessary for HPHT(high-pressure-high-temperature).

 

EDIT: i should mention that there are other methods but these involve explosives and only produce diamonds that you would need an electron microscope to actually see.

i should mention that there are other methods but these involve explosives and only produce diamonds that you would need an electron microscope to actually see.

 

_0UOB50Otok

you'd generally want explosion more contained than that. it's not really practical to do in your garage.

You will be able to do so if you supply enough pressure and heat to charcole(if it consists of pure carbon) Do you think you can squeeze a carbon atom by putting a bunch of charcoal to a clamp???......

As a whole..you wont able to do this thing in this way... :/

so are you going to add anything new to the discussion or did you just reopen a two week stale thread to repeat what other members have said?

so are you going to add anything new to the discussion or did you just reopen a two week stale thread to repeat what other members have said?

 

the latter. definitely the latter.

Does anyone know if this works? http://www.rangeguide.net/diamonds.htm Bit sceptical myself, but never tried it. Charcol briqquettes covered in peanut butter, wax or oil and microwaved at intervals. Leaves a load of soot which supposedly can be washed to leave very small diamonds.

Does anyone know if this works? http://www.rangeguide.net/diamonds.htm Bit sceptical myself, but never tried it. Charcol briqquettes covered in peanut butter, wax or oil and microwaved at intervals. Leaves a load of soot which supposedly can be washed to leave very small diamonds.

 

try it

Does anyone know if this works? http://www.rangeguide.net/diamonds.htm Bit sceptical myself, but never tried it. Charcol briqquettes covered in peanut butter, wax or oil and microwaved at intervals. Leaves a load of soot which supposedly can be washed to leave very small diamonds.

 

Mythbusters tried it and broke a few microwaves in the process. When they were done, there were still no diamonds.

I think it is highly impossible to create a diamond from a piece of coal especially in your garage. You need high pressure and relatively high temperature for a piece of coal to turn into diamond.

highly impossible

 

highly impossible! Is that even more impossible than just plan old impossible then? Personally I'd say it's Fairly impossible, but you know I could be wrong, it could be reasonable impossible or even just a little bit impossible.

i'd say its possible.

 

the chemical vapour depostion method should definitely be achievable in the domestic scale. and you'll get high quality and possibly large diamonds out of it.

 

i might try it when i get the time.

If I put a piece of charcoal in a metal clamp (for pressure) and set the focal point of a fresnel lense on the charcoal (for heat) would this be enough to squeeze the carbon atoms in the charcoal together to form diamond lattice?

 

If it was that easy, diamonds would be worthless.

If it was that easy, diamonds would be worthless.

 

No, they would still be useful for things like cutting tools.

and heat sinks. very very good heat conduction properties. and the diamonds don't need to be of gemological quality to do that. they can still be looking like black/brown lumps and perform well.

No, they would still be useful for things like cutting tools.

 

I never said they would be useless just worthless in the monetary sense, which is what I suspect is the attrctiveness of trying to make them.

It is nearly impossible to get a clean diamond with a CVD machine.

It is nearly impossible to get a clean diamond with a CVD machine.

 

oh really? would you mind backing that up? because i've seen a few and they looked indistinguishable from gem quality. crystal clear and sparkly. granted i never looked at them under a microscope or anything but they looked good.

oh really? would you mind backing that up? because i've seen a few and they looked indistinguishable from gem quality. crystal clear and sparkly. granted i never looked at them under a microscope or anything but they looked good.

 

Sometimes they are even used for optics that require high clarity lenses. It is because they don't have impurities to give them color, that they are considered to be inferior gem quality, IIRC.

ah yeah, worse because they're better. i keep forgetting how weird gemological ratings are.

 

it needs to be contaminated, but it has to be precisely the right sort and level of contamination.

Diamond sellers are mostly part of a cartel...

 

http://are.berkeley.edu/~sberto/debers.pdf

 

Fake (ha!) diamonds are disliked over natural ones despite them being capable of having less imperfections.

Well technically color is an impurity, but colored diamonds are often prettier. But yeah, the whole "artificial" diamond nonsense is rather amusing.

Be happy they rate gems that way, otherwise, a decent manufactured diamond would cost even more than it does.