Korean scientists develop a method to quickly produce diamonds in 150 minutes

Scientists developed a process to produce artificial diamonds with liquid metal at about 1,000 degrees Celsius and low pressure .

Natural diamonds take billions of years to form under extreme pressure and heat deep underground. Synthetic diamonds are produced much faster, but often still require intense pressure for several weeks. However, the new method based on a mixture of liquid metals can create diamonds in just 150 minutes at a temperature of 1,025 degrees Celsius without requiring enormous pressure.

Scanning electron microscope image of diamond film formed by liquid metal. (Photo: Nature).

New research conducted by a group of scientists at the Korean Institute of Basic Sciences, published in Nature magazine on April 24. They believe this method can be scaled up to make a significant difference in the field of synthetic diamond production.

Dissolving carbon into liquid metal to produce diamonds is not entirely new. For example, the General Electric company developed such a process about half a century ago with molten iron sulfide. However, the process still requires 5 - 6 gigapascals of pressure and a diamond "seed" for the carbon to adhere to.

"We have discovered a method to grow diamonds at 1 atmosphere of pressure (atmospheric pressure at sea level) and moderate temperatures using a liquid metal mixture ," the team of experts wrote in new research.

They successfully reduced the required pressure level by carefully mixing the liquid metals gallium, iron, nickel and silicon. A specialized vacuum system is built inside the graphite shell to rapidly heat and cool the metal while it is exposed to a mixture of methane and hydrogen.

These conditions cause carbon atoms from the methane to penetrate the molten metal, acting as diamond "seeds ". After 15 minutes, small pieces of diamond crystals protruded from just below the surface of the liquid metal. After 150 minutes, a continuous diamond film will form.

Although the carbon concentration that creates the crystals is reduced at a depth of just a few hundred nanometers, the team hopes the process can be improved with some adjustments. These adjustments will take time and the research is still in its infancy, but they say the new method has great potential and could be combined with other liquid metals to get similar, or even better, results. than.