The secret of diamonds

More than a billion years ago, deep underground, tremendous heat and extremely high pressure worked out the diamonds that people exploit today.

These particles follow the lava volcano gradually up near the earth's surface. After each battle of lava like that, the volcano left a stone cylinder shaped like a carrot called kimberlite , in its intestine encrusted with diamonds, garnet and countless other gems.

The word " diamond " - diamond - derives from the ancient Greek, "adamas", meaning unparalleled. Indians used to exploit diamonds and use them on religious symbols at least 2,500 years ago. First century Romans also knew how to use it to carve stone jewelry.

Through the ages, diamonds are considered mystic symbols to symbolize power and wealth. In the 16th century, a 109-carat diamond named Koh-I-Noor found in the Kollur mine, southern India, was considered the most precious object of the entire Indian continent. England captured Koh-I-Noor in 1849 when Lahore and Punjab became members of the British Empire. This diamond, now in the Tower of London, is the jewel in the center of the crown made exclusively for Queen Elizabeth in 1937.

The popularity of diamonds increased in the 19th century, when polishing and cutting techniques had reached a high level. Jewelers started headlining advertising campaigns.

The precious diamond is not only in beauty but also in hardness, inertness, refractive ability, light reflection. Therefore, if in ancient times, people only used it to make jewelry, nowadays, diamonds are also present in the technical equipment of mechanics, electronics, universe .

In rough form, diamonds are not beautiful and less refractive, but after being cut, it has an unrivaled beauty. There are countless ways of cutting thought from the past such as cutting 'round', 'bread' (melon seeds), 'square', 'heart', 'rose'. A diamond cut well when viewed from above must be white. If it is cut well, when seen from above, it will see black in the middle and sometimes there is a shadow at the top.

The cutting process increases its value by increasing clarity and toning of colors, although the volume decreases by more than 30%. A pure crystal structure will make the diamond colorless.

However, most diamonds are not perfect. Colors can increase or decrease the value of a stone. Small yellow spots will greatly reduce diamond value while pink or blue (like Hope diamond) will make it more valuable.

The most common impurity in diamonds is nitrogen. A small portion of nitrogen in diamond crystals will make it yellow, even brown. In GIA standard, the color of the diamond is 'D' and gold is 'Z'. Sometimes people use complex optical methods to determine color. Diamonds with very high or low true colors are rare, and also very expensive. From D to G are colorless tablets, from H to J is almost colorless, KM is slightly colored, NY is light yellow or brown. However, diamonds with light yellow Z are rare and very valuable.

Contrary to yellow and brown, other colors are harder to find and more valuable. As long as the diamond is pink or blue, the value is already very high. Depending on which element of the carbon lattice has been replaced, diamond will have that color. Common colors are yellow, pink, blue, green, red, brown .

Although since 1796, chemist Smithson Tennan has discovered the chemical structure of diamonds as carbon 4 molecules, joined together by cubic symmetrical bonds. But it was not until the 50s of the 20th century that people began to try to create artificial diamonds. Initially, scientists smelted graphite graphite at 1,400 degrees Celsius, with pressure higher than air pressure 55,000 times. As a result, they obtained small, impure stones that could only be used for dental drills and as hacksaw blades due to their low hardness.

Many scientists give up because they cannot afford the cost of such experiments. But Linares pursued and succeeded. Robert Linares invented the technique of making diamonds in 1958. In 1966, he discovered the exact value of gas and temperature mixtures to create large diamonds in the form of a single crystal.

For an impartial appraisal of this artificial gem quality, Robert Linares brought the 0.38 carat stone, his finished product, to Virgil Ghita, the prestigious Ghita's jeweler in Boston. He used a small tweezers to pinch the stone, raised it to his right eye and looked through the goldsmith's magnifying glass. Slowly, he turned the stone against the afternoon sunshine and exclaimed: " I don't see any defect. Where did you get this amazing stone? ". That statement is enough to confirm the success of Robert Linares.

Robert Linares performed a chemical "gas deposition" process, essentially compressing gaseous carbon on diamond seeds to form diamonds a dozen times larger, and using molten metal as a substance. catalytic under extremely high temperature and pressure conditions. Diamonds have since grown above seeds in the form of crystalline carbon. Later, the Linares family company (known as Apollo Diamond, based in Boston, Machasusette state) produced about 20 carats of jewelry diamonds and diamond crystals used for microchip research each week.

The largest artificial diamond is 15 carats, made by Russell Henley, director of the Carnegie Institution's geophysical laboratory. Recently, Henley created the most solid diamond. At first, he implanted a diamond "seed" from the laboratory, then put it in an oven of extremely high pressure and temperature that changed the atomic structure of the diamond. This gemstone became so hard that it broke the hardness gauge, even though the parts were made of diamonds.

As the demand for diamonds in the fields of medicine, information technology, space, aircraft, military . is growing, many companies are aggressively competing in the production of artificial diamonds. . Gemesis (in Sarasota, Florida) has invented a way to make extremely rare, blue diamonds in the market.