Scientists have made a major breakthrough by creating real diamonds in just 15 minutes, using only room temperature and normal pressure. This discovery makes the process of producing lab-grown diamonds faster, simpler, and potentially more affordable, without needing a starting diamond.

Diamonds naturally form deep within the Earth, around 90 to 150 miles below the surface, where the pressure is extremely high and the temperature reaches up to 2,000°F. Carbon atoms bond together under these extreme conditions, forming diamonds.

Over millions of years, volcanic eruptions bring these diamonds closer to the surface, where they are found in rocks like kimberlite and lamproite. These diamonds are then mined from volcanic pipes or riverbeds.

Creating Diamonds in the Lab:

To recreate the extreme conditions needed for diamond formation, scientists have used a method called high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) growth.

This method mimics the deep-Earth environment by creating high pressure and heat. However, it has limitations, such as producing small diamonds (about the size of a blueberry) and being time-consuming and expensive.

Another method, chemical vapor deposition, doesn’t require high pressure but still needs a starter diamond to grow.

The New Discovery:

A team led by Rodney Ruoff, a physical chemist from the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, has developed a new method that works at normal room pressure and uses a mixture of gallium and silicon.

After years of research, Ruoff and his team found that this combination, when heated, catalyzes the creation of diamonds in just 15 minutes. The scientists also used a special chamber that allowed them to rapidly experiment with different gas mixtures to find the best formula.

After several trials, they discovered that adding a little nickel and iron to the gallium-silicon mixture created diamonds quickly and efficiently. In just 15 minutes, diamonds started forming, and a full diamond layer appeared in about two and a half hours.

How the Process Works:

Although the full details of natural diamond formation are still unclear, scientists believe the key to this method is cooling the mixture to help carbon from methane move to the center of the crucible, where it crystallizes into diamonds. Silicon plays a vital role in the process, acting as a seed for the carbon to form diamonds around.

Challenges and Limitations:

While this breakthrough is exciting, there are still some limitations. The diamonds produced using this method are very small—much smaller than those made with the HPHT method. These tiny diamonds aren’t suitable for jewelry, but they could be useful for industrial purposes like drilling and polishing.

The process also uses low pressure, which could make it easier to scale up diamond production in the future. Rodney Ruoff is optimistic that in the next year or two, we will have a clearer idea of how this method could impact the commercial diamond industry.

This new discovery marks an important step in diamond production and may open doors for more efficient and accessible synthetic diamond creation, potentially changing the diamond industry in the years to come.

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