DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
AMY VAN DER HOVEN
MRS. SENEKAL
THE KING’S COLLEGE
I NTTRROO DDU
IN
U CCTTI IOONN
One of the most sought after substances on Earth, is
diamond, known for its incomparable hardness, and
beauty. Diamonds were once believed to take 1-3 billion
years, roughly 150 km into the Earth to form. Now it has
been discovered that substances with the exact same
composition and properties as diamond can be formed
using the HPHT(high pressure, high temperature), or CVD
(chemical vapor deposition) diamond processes, and can
now be manufactured in a short amount of time.
CONCLUSION
PROPERTIES OF THE MATERIAL
MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF DIAMOND:
•
Allotrope of carbon in which the carbon atoms are arranged
in the cubic lattice called diamond cubic
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF DIAMOND:
•
•
The HPHT method consists of three stages, in which a
diamond seed is placed at the bottom of a belt press . The
internal section of the press is heated above 1400◦ C
melting the solvent metal. This molten metal then
dissolves the high purity carbon source, which is
transported to the small diamond seed forming a
precipitation which forms the diamond.
Hardest known substance on Earth.
•
Varying colours.
•
Not malleable
•
Brittle
High crystalline perfection make diamonds transparent.
•
Good heat conductor.
CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF DIAMOND:
•
Not very reactive.
•
Burns when heated in air or oxygen.
Diamond has many wonderful and
helpful uses, and synthetic diamond will
only allow for more creative and
widespread applications of this superhard material. There are many ways of
producing synthetic diamond, and due
to its quick manufacturing process, it
can be made available for a far more
reasonable price than natural diamond.
The production of synthetic diamond
will allow for more advanced
experiments and designs which will
advance our technology and pave the
way to a more enlightened world.
FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF THE MATERIAL
There are many, important uses for diamond, and
synthetic diamond production will allow limitless
amounts of diamond for a fraction of the price of
naturally occurring diamonds.
Diamonds can be used for so many things, namely cutting hard materials, or acting as a virtually
indestructible substance.
I chose to research diamond as a material of the future,
as I heard about synthesized diamonds first through a
conversation with a relative who knew Dr.Wedlake, who
had been manufacturing synthetic diamonds, and was
later bought out by De Beer’s jewelery chain.
• - Bullet proof vests.
Some future uses of diamond include:
• - Bullet proof windows.
• - Ultra-durable screens or screen guards for cell phones.
• - The tips/ edges of cutting tools such as power drills or angle grinders.
• - The screens of aqua drones sent down to measure the depths of the ocean. (This way the
screen will not crack due to the intense water pressure)
REFERENCING
synthetic diamond vs real - Google
Search. 2016. synthetic diamond vs
real - Google Search. [ONLINE]
Available
at: https://www.google.co.za/search?q=
synthetic+diamond+vs+real. [Accessed
20 August 2016].
synthetic diamond - Google Search.
2016. synthetic diamond - Google
Search. [ONLIN] Available
at:https://www.google.co.za/search?q
=synthetic+diamond. [Accessed 20
August 2016].
Wikipedia. 2016. Synthetic
diamond - Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia. [ONLINE]
Available
at:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
/Synthetic_diamond.
[Accessed 20 August 2016].