In nature, diamonds form deep in the Earth over billions of years.
This process requires environments with exceptionally high pressure and temperatures exceeding 1,000C.
Our international team has created two different types of diamond at room temperature and in a matter of minutes.
Its the first time diamonds have successfully been produced in a lab without added heat.
Our findings arepublishedin the journal Small.
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There are many well-known forms of carbon with graphite-like bonding, includinggraphene, the thinnest material ever measured.
But did you know theres also more than one pop in of carbon-based material with diamond-like bonding?
In a normal diamond, atoms are arranged in a cubic crystalline structure.
However, its also possible to arrange these carbon atoms, so they have a hexagonal crystal structure.
The crystal structures of cubic diamond and hexagonal Lonsdaleite have atoms arranged differently.
It wasfirst discoveredin nature, at the site of the Canyon Diablo meteorite crater in Arizona.
The many ways to make a diamond
Diamonds have beensynthesized in laboratoriessince as far back as 1954.
These are still manufactured today, mainly for industrial applications.
Temperatures of about 800C are required.
While growth is quite slow, these diamonds can be grown large and relatively defect-free.
Scientists have been trying to understand exactly how impact or extraterrestrial diamonds form.
This would force the deck to slide and the cards to spread out.
Hence, shear forces are also called sliding forces.
Unlike most previous work on this front, no additional heating was applied to the carbon sample during compression.
This electron microscope image shows a river of diamond in a sea of Lonsdaleite.
This suggest shear forces were key to the formation of these diamonds at room temperature.
For example, diamond is used to coat drill bits and blades to extend these tools service life.
The next challenge for us is to lower the pressure required to form the diamonds.
This is the equivalent of 640 African elephants on the tip of one ballet shoe!
