Korean scientists figure out how to make diamonds in 15 minutes

By Dean Murray via SWNS

A breakthrough study means diamonds can now be produced in 15 minutes.

Scientists have developed a process whereby synthetic diamonds are produced without the need for high pressure and temperature.

Creating the gems under moderate conditions would allow them to be made at a fraction of the existing cost.

Natural diamonds were formed thousands of million years ago in the upper mantle of Earth in metallic melts at temperatures of 900–1,400 °C.

Synthetic diamonds have been produced since 1955 using similar high temperatures and 50,000 atmospheres of pressure (atm) over 5-12 days.

However, researchers at Korea’s Institute for Basic Science (IBS) have grown diamonds under conditions of 1 atmosphere pressure and at 1025 °C using a liquid metal alloy composed of gallium, iron, nickel, and silicon.

The discovery of this new growth method opens many possibilities for further basic science studies and for scaling up the growth of diamonds in new ways.

The team of researchers was led by Director Rod Ruoff at the Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials (CMCM), within IBS.

The researchers discovered that diamond grows in the sub-surface of a liquid metal alloy consisting of a mix of gallium, nickel, iron and silicon when exposed to methane and hydrogen under 1 atm pressure at ~1025 °C.

Director Ruoff says: "The concentration of subsurface carbon atoms is so high at around 10 minutes that this time exposure is close to or at supersaturation, leading to the nucleation of diamonds either at 10 minutes or sometime between 10 and 15 minutes.

"The growth of diamond particles is expected to occur very rapidly after nucleation, at some time between about 10 minutes and 15 minutes."

The discovery of this new growth method opens many possibilities for further basic science studies and for scaling up the growth of diamonds in new ways, say the team.

The research has been published in the journal Nature.