Chinese researchers claim they produced diamonds that conduct electricity. (Image Credit: Bas van den Eijkhof/Unsplash)
We all know about diamonds and their heat-conductive properties. They also have a high cost, which sparked a new industry: treating high-purity carbon under intense heat and pressure or carbon vapor deposition to grow these materials in laboratories. But now they’ve gained a new feature. Researchers from Zhengzhou University, Henan Academy of Sciences, Ningbo University, and Jilin University created electrical-conducting diamonds.
To produce them, the team formed tiny composites of graphene and diamonds. With nanodiamonds, they synthesized superfine diamond grains integrated with graphene layers. They performed this technique under pressures of 12 gigapascals and temperatures ranging from 2,372 to 2,723°F. Such conditions make it possible to generate lab-grown diamonds.
And because these new conductive diamonds use graphene, they don’t have a clear, polished, or tinted appearance, but rather, they have dull black. In the experimental step, the diamonds measured 0.5 inches (diameter) and less than two millimeters thick.
Additionally, these diamonds are as tough as the real thing that grows in natural Earth environments. So they’re very hard to break open, which means humans can use them in aircraft and spacecraft engines that have harsh conditions. Thanks to its high durability, the new diamonds have potential applications in the electrocatalysis step of sewage treatment. Other use cases include extremely alkaline or acidic conditions that generate high heat.
The team believes they can change the diamond’s shape and size. “Our findings pave the way for realizing conductive and super hard large-sized diamond materials under mild synthetic conditions, facilitating their practical utilization in related industrial applications,” they stated in the paper.
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