Making Diamonds Out of Peanut Butter

It may sound weird but still it looks like even peanut butter may shine one day. Currently scientists from the Bayerisches Geoinstitute in Germany are taking pains in finding what Earth's mantle is actually made of. Want they or not but it is closely connected with diamond formation. Though the composition of the last is known but it's still unbelievable how carbon can be transferred into the most solid stone in the world with the change of conditions.

The team of researchers lead by David Robson are studying possible constituents of lower mantle, because it's still unknown what it consists of. There exists much information on upper layers but lower layers are buried too deep under the ground to be studied. However, there are chambers in the laboratories where the conditions are very close to real. So they take certain materials and expose them to high pressure and high temperature to make them denser. Among the most odd materials peanut butter was taken. This is not a random choice. In fact this is a carbonaceous material which under heat and pressure turned into small diamonds.

Let's Shift from Natural to Synthetic Diamonds

About two weeks ago the Rapaport International Diamond Conference 2012 was held in Mumbai, where serious issues concerning Indian diamond market, pricing, new regulatory and compliance requirements that India is going to face soon had been discussed. But now it seems the time for a fest, GemFest if to be precise.

GIA has chosen Hong Kong as a place location for its GemFest at the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair where they will touch upon such topics as current status of synthetic gem diamonds. GIA's director of research and development Dr. Wuyi Wang is about to speak on September 19 and 22 about latest advancements in Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) methods of producing synthetic diamonds of white color.

There can be various motives that pushed GIA to hold the conference either it could be those undetected synthetic diamonds that made a huge stir this year being sold for natural or the event was planned prior to the occasion due to growing popularity of synthetic gem diamonds but it's evident that synthetic diamonds draw much attention of both diamantaires and mere customers.

Some words about the reporter: Dr. Wuyi Wang has got more than 20-years experience in studying diamond geochemistry and diamond treatment. You can see his publications in many geological and gemological issues.

Man-Made Diamonds: When Did They Become Known?

There is the claim that not many people have yet heard about man-made diamonds, do you think it's true? It seems created diamonds became a real hit for the past 10 or even more years.
The first man-made diamond was created long ago in 1953, when General Electrics built huge machines to grow diamonds for industrial purposes. For several years they kept it in a secret probably practicing their skills for producing high quality gems. When at last submitted to approval, created diamond were confirmed as the best alternatives for natural stones. This gave a start for a new era – era of man-made diamonds.

As it usually happens, there appeared many companies who also tried to pioneer an unknown field of science, what on the one hand created a tough competition and helped to increase the quality of a final product, diamond in this case. What is more, it also helped to make a shift from only industrial purpose of created diamonds they were intended for first, to aesthetic side of it by applying them in jewelry. Nowadays you can find Gemesis, Apollo Diamonds, New Age Diamonds and many more companies on the jewelry market offering quality gems of the same quality as mined diamonds.

Man-made diamonds are normally created by one of two methods, either HPHT (high pressure high temperature) or CVD (chemical vapor deposition). The first method neatly recreates the environment the same that is needed to form diamonds in the Earth's crust. First, the stones must be put under high pressure, next heated to a certain state, just like it happens under the ground. The second method is a chemical one that derives diamonds out of carbon plasma. No matter what the method is, it still helps to cultivate real diamonds, with the same properties of the natural stones. And man-made diamonds really can boast to gain an ever-growing popularity among diamond lovers, both men and women. Partly it's due to the cost of man-made diamonds. They are less expensive than natural gems, but they are not cheap! You feel the difference in cost when you opt for bigger or colored stones, which are so rare in nature and the price skyrockets unpredictable for them, from thousands of dollars to millions some times. This never happens with man-made diamonds, where the price grows proportionally to the size of a stone. This makes them so popular and sought-after.

So, do you remember when you first heard about man-made diamonds? Just recently or many years ago?

Gemesis: How Do They Grow Diamonds

Keeping with the previous post, there is a video about how Gemesis creates their diamonds. If you haven't yet got an idea of how the company stood on the path of filling the market with their stones by 2020, then after watching this video you will understand how the things are coming right. It's a common knowledge, that it's better to see once than hundred times to read about the technology, so enjoy watching and share you thoughts about it:

A Bit of Sciences

People have spent many years and huge amount of funds in order to create such a precious gem as diamond. The first discovery that was made concerning this gem is that a real diamond consists of pure carbon. This discovery dated 1797. Though it sounded rather simply, but to make such a valuable thing out of something else appeared to be not an easy task.

First more or less successful attempts to produce a stone were made in 1879 and 1893, when a Noble-prized chemist Henri Moissan used high temperature (up to 3500 °C) and high pressure to create a diamond stone out of graphite. Through the years this manufacturing technology has been changing and currently you will find several methods of diamond synthesis. One of them is high-pressure high-temperature method, which is used by Gemesis company situated in Sarasot, Florida, United States. As you can judge from the name of the method, scientists grow synthetic diamond with the help of press, which creates high-pressure high-temperature environment. The most difficult thing was to invent such a high-pressure apparatus. The first to succeed was Tracy Hall, who derived first synthetic diamond stones out of graphite on December 16, 1954. His device is presently called "a belt press", named after the form of construction: the central cell, where the main process of synthesis of diamond crystals takes place, was supported by a tungsten-carbide belt with a beltline made of high-resistant steel. Since that time this construction underwent some changes but the general principal of device design founded by Hall remained.

There is an interesting fact concerning source material. Some say that diamond can be produced from any carbon-saturated material including human remains (ew, what a disgust), but usually manufacturers use graphite and a range of catalysts for this purpose. Due to the fact that the process of producing synthetic diamonds is rather complicated and still takes much funds and efforts to grow diamonds, these sparkling little gems are so rare, unique and always adorable (My preeecioooouuuuusss!).