Manufactured Diamonds and the Road to Scientific Discovery

Published by on November 5, 2023

Throughout history until the present day, diamonds have been a symbol of worth and value. Whenever one thinks of a diamond, highly priced jewelry is the forefront thought. However, the emergence of the lab-grown version established a wider range of benefits to humans and even to the evolution of science.

The first synthetic diamond was created during “Project Superpressure” by General Electric in 1954 (Butcher, 2023). This project was established due to the faster, easier, and cheaper benefits that the process of creating synthetic diamonds provided (Butcher, 2023). The formation of diamonds occurs when carbon atoms are placed under high temperature and pressure. Through this process, strong electrostatic bonds form between the atoms and help to create a crystalized shape. Neighbouring carbon atoms attract to this strong base and as a result continuously form an even larger crystal lattice, containing millions of atoms (Lineberry, 2006). Synthetic diamonds have a larger advantage of scientific use when compared to natural diamonds, as they are free of impurities (Figure 1).

Figure 1: This image showcases the close resemblance between synthetic and natural diamonds. Synthetic diamonds are highly precise in quality and cut without any polishing. They are created in the lab to be the purest form of carbon and often have “physical and chemical properties that make them appear almost identical to natural diamonds” (Wilson, 2020).

Natural diamonds are found in types of volcanic rocks called kimberlites, located in the oldest parts of the continents. The mantle, which is a connecting layer between the Earth’s crust and core, is disrupted by plate tectonics causing the rifting and stretching of the crust (Sexton, 2023). These interactions cause the formation of volcanic eruptions, which leads to the kimberlite pipes bursting through the surface and causes the diamonds to move up as well. In comparison, synthetic diamond formation tries to mimic these conditions by using a process involving high pressure and temperature (Figure 2), or through a more popular process called chemical vapour deposition. This method involves combining carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen gases together and adding a small amount of graphite, which is then heated to temperatures of around 800-900 degrees Celsius, causing carbon from the gases to stick to the graphite or diamond seed and form a larger crystallized structure (Butcher, 2023). Although the synthetic method has been proven to be more efficient, the natural diamond provides more evidence of the Earth’s mantle structure and formation (Macpherson, 2017).

Figure 2. The growth and formation of lab-grown diamonds within a plasma reactor. One of the reasons the synthetic diamonds turn this yellow-red colour is due to impurities from the presence of other elements like nitrogen rather than just pure copper (Milman, 2020).

Natural diamonds provide evidence of the Earth’s past but synthetic diamonds make a big impact on the present and future scientific applications. One of the main uses is in healthcare through the modern-day fight against cancer. Nano-diamonds, diamonds that smaller than 100 nanometers, are complexed with a chemotherapeutic drug, and are placed inside devices to release a slow, controlled amount of the drug. This process helps to reduce the continuous dosing and even overall side effects of chemotherapy (Gupta, et al., 2017).

The overwhelming advantages that synthetic diamonds provide demonstrates the big impact they have on the field of science, and can lead to a bigger change than natural diamonds in the scientific community overall.

References

Butcher, A., 2023. A brief history of lab-grown diamonds. [online] International Gem Society. Available at: <https://www.gemsociety.org/article/brief-history-of-lab-grown-diamonds/>[Accessed 3 Nov. 2023].

Gupta, C., Gupta, S. and Prakash, D., 2017a. Cancer treatment with nano-diamonds. Frontiers in Bioscience, 9(1), pp.62–70.

Lineberry, C., 2006. Diamonds unearthed. [online] Smithsonian.com. Available at:<https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/diamonds-unearthed-141629226/>[Accessed 3 Nov. 2023].

Macpherson, J., 2017. Diamonds are for everything. [online] Warwick. Available at: <https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/knowledgecentre/science/chemistry/diamondtechnology/> [Accessed 2 Nov. 2023].

Milman, O., 2020. [image online] The Guardian. Available at:<https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4c9566a931d8924ec37ae7fe2f16876aba2b2cd1/0_0_5015_3009/master/5015.jpg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none> [Accessed 1 Nov. 2023].

Sexton, C., 2019. Research shows that Earth’s mantle looks ‘like a Jackson Pollock painting’. [online] Earth.com. Available at: <https://www.earth.com/news/earths-mantle-jackson-pollock-painting/> [Accessed 2 Nov. 2023].

Wilson, A., 2020. Are lab created or synthetic diamonds worth buying? [online] All Diamond. Available at: <https://alldiamond.co.uk/a/blog/are-lab-created-synthetic-diamonds-worth-buying> [Accessed 10 Nov. 2023].