Artificial diamond

1992/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

We have always thought that getting the diamond requires high pressures and heat. Argentine physicist Manuel Nuñez Regueiro has shown that this occurrence is not true. This indicates that increased pressure is sufficient to obtain the diamond.

The researcher working in Grenobble analyzes the influence of molecules in the form of a "football". It compressed the amount of 1 mm3 of the substance "Carbon 60" up to 150,000 atmospheres to know its electrical properties, that is, its conductivity, its semiconductivity or its superconductivity.

After several failed attempts, he removed the coating from the pressure machine and discovered that the pad was transparent and bright. He immediately took the pill and took it to a crystallography laboratory for study. The result surprised everyone, the diamond.

This has been the first time the diamond has been manufactured artificially and at room temperature. So far, with the atmosphere compression of 50,000–60,000, it took 1,250-1,500°C to get the diamond. From now on, with this new technique, obtaining diamonds for industrial processes will be much easier and cheaper.