Scientists Make Insta-Bling at Room Temperature
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for c0lo:
Scientists make insta-bling at room temperature:
An international team of scientists has defied nature to make diamonds in minutes in a laboratory at room temperature - a process that normally requires billions of years, huge amounts of pressure and super-hot temperatures.
The team, led by The Australian National University (ANU) and RMIT University, made two types of diamonds: the kind found on an engagement ring and another type of diamond called Lonsdaleite, which is found in nature at the site of meteorite impacts such as Canyon Diablo in the US.
[...] This new unexpected discovery shows both Lonsdaleite and regular diamond can also form at normal room temperatures by just applying high pressures - equivalent to 640 African elephants on the tip of a ballet shoe.
"The twist in the story is how we apply the pressure. As well as very high pressures, we allow the carbon to also experience something called 'shear' - which is like a twisting or sliding force. We think this allows the carbon atoms to move into place and form Lonsdaleite and regular diamond," Professor Bradby said.
[...] "Being able to make two types of diamonds at room temperature was exciting to achieve for the first time in our lab," Ms Huang said.
Journal Reference:
Dougal G. McCulloch, Sherman Wong, Thomas B. Shiell, et al. Investigation of Room Temperature Formation of the UltraHard Nanocarbons Diamond and Lonsdaleite, Small (DOI: 10.1002/smll.202004695)
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