Questions tagged [diamond]

'diamond' is a crystalline solid form of the chemical element Carbon. It has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any known natural substance. DO NOT USE THIS TAG FOR QUESTIONS RELATED TO DIAMOND SHAPE. Use the geometry tag instead.

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Could someone explain this phase diagram to me?

I'm a litte confused by this diagram. What does the "Diamond + metastasble Graphite" and "Graphite + metastable Diamond" regions mean? I mean at room temperature and Pressures, ...
blademan9999's user avatar
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How do you cut a single crystal into one of a different orientation?

I am reading about laser-cutting of single crystal wafers to produce wafers of a different orientation. Is this as simple as cutting along the plane of the desired orientation? Meaning: with a 100 ...
alexander.graf's user avatar
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1 answer
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What makes carbon atomic structures stand out from other elements in terms of their properties?

Since lots of materials with some remarkable properties are some form of carbon structures: Incredible strength of graphene is often explained by it having a hexagonal atomic lattice. Hardness of a ...
eyeballpaul's user avatar
5 votes
3 answers
2k views

"A diamond baseball bat would be very easy to break compared to a wood baseball bat." Is this true? If so, why?

In a previous question, someone mentioned that a diamond baseball bat would be very easy to break compared to a wood baseball bat. Is this true? If I could create a baseball bat that is made out of ...
Steven Sagona's user avatar
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2 answers
313 views

Could a nuclear bomb be used as a replacement for gunpowder in a giant cannon made out of diamond?

The question is obviously outlandish, but I'm curious about the napkin-math involved in estimating this. I don't know much material science and seems like an interesting exercise. If I could carve a ...
Steven Sagona's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
429 views

Why is diamond harder even though its packing fraction is only about 34%?

Why is diamond harder even though its packing fraction is only about 34% (less than that of fcc)?
Rick Andy's user avatar
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2 answers
140 views

Is it possible to uniquely identify a diamond by the refraction of light through it?

I am kinda new to physics and this question was bugging me lately. Is it possible in any way to uniquely identify a diamond , maybe through how it refracts light? Do you know if there is any research ...
Hustler885's user avatar
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1 answer
154 views

Hardness vs Abrasion

Is it true that things that are hard, such as diamonds, wear out more slowly? Does abrasion depend on the hardness of the material? If so, why can diamonds in alluvial deposits survive for thousands ...
patricoo's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
2k views

How can the heat capacity of diamond be so low?

I'm taking an introductory thermodynamics course, and according to my professor, the heat capacity of an ideal gas is $\frac{3}{2}R \approx$ 12.5. Since ideal gases don't have any attraction between ...
Armaan's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Will the sky be full of rainbows?

I saw this article and something really wierd came in my mind. What would the sky look like on those planets of our solar system where rainfall of diamonds occur? Will it be full of rainbows? Has it ...
Ankit's user avatar
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4 votes
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Why does hot (molten) glass glow, while diamond does not?

I have read this question: Why doesn't diamond glow when hot? This is because of Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation. The corollary from it is that emissivity of a material is equal to its ...
Árpád Szendrei's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why does diamond-graphite phase digram not contain a critical point?

I was curious as to why in all the diagrams I have seen that the diamond-graphite phase diagram does not display a critical point, do all substances eventually reach a critical point?
jacob bradley's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
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Query over the resistivity of diamond

In Griffths' book Introduction to Electrodynamics he includes diamond as a semiconductor and quotes a value of resistivity of $\rho = 2.7 \,\,\, \Omega m$. Surely this is a mistake? Where does this ...
jim's user avatar
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Is graphene a better thermal conductor than diamond?

I was listening to the BBC Inside Science Podcast episode about artificial diamonds and they mentioned that diamonds are the most thermally conductive material. One of the people on the episode was ...
mowwwalker's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why does diamond's specific heat capacity deviate from the Dulong-Petit theory at room temperatures? [closed]

Why does diamond deviate from the prediction of $c_v = 3k_B$ at room temperature more than other solids. Why do we require Debye's theory instead?
user208480's user avatar
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1 answer
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How many atoms are in the primitive unit cell for diamond?

The primitive unit cell for diamond is pictured (the parallelepiped inside the cube). How many atoms are in the unit cell? My first guess is 3.5 and i know this must be wrong as the number of atoms in ...
user208480's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
249 views

Band formation in diamond

Why is it that in the band diagram of diamond does the sp3 hybridised orbital split into two forming valence band and conduction band? I thought that these sp3 hybridised orbital forms 4n bonding and ...
Grace's user avatar
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1 answer
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How could skin be made as hard as diamond or graphene, whilst retaining it's current flexibility? [closed]

I want to understand what exactly the difference is between skin, on a molecular, atomic and quantum level, and materials like diamond and graphene. Then I wish to understand the changes that would ...
Chanti Cooper's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
181 views

Is there a theoretical upper limit for how hard something can be? Harder than diamonds?

Is there a theoretical upper limit for how hard something can be under "normal circumstances" (i.e., on the surface of Earth or similar or in the empty space)? Something like absolute zero/infinity on ...
d-b's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
186 views

Why are diamonds formed under high pressure? (use entropy)

My book asks how can diamond ever be more stable than graphite, when it has less entropy. I have to explain how at high pressures the conversion of graphite to diamond can increase the total entropy ...
Sha Vuklia's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
688 views

What does diamond have besides graphite?

I know that diamonds are made of carbon atoms and graphite is made of carbon atoms too. The structure of both is also different. But do diamonds have any material or structure besides carbon to make ...
Ethan Twu Questioner's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
186 views

Diamond and UV light

In the paper Characteristics of 2-photon ultraviolet laser etching of diamond. RP Mildren et al. Opt. Mater. Express 1, 576 (2011), I found out that UV light cause the atom ejection from the ...
patricoo's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
122 views

What does the phrase "atom-like system" refer to?

In several papers and contexts I've seen this phrases like this used: The nitrogen-vacancy in diamond is an atom-like system in the solid state. What does "atom like system" mean exactly? I've ...
qwerty2.0's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
27 views

Looking inside a diamond film plate at the nanoscale

What is the best microscope or other analytical tool for detecting the presence of nano-graphite inside of single crystal diamond film? It would be good to have a 3D map of the nano-graphite, too. ...
M. Morris's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
604 views

How to calculate the resonance peak of a NV center during a ESR/ODMR measurement?

I am thinking of making an magnetometer with ODMR measurement of a NV center in nanodiamond. But before I do the experiment, I want to estimate the sensitivity of my experiment beforehand ...
BNHSX's user avatar
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19 votes
2 answers
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Why is diamond transparent while graphite is not?

Diamond and graphite are both made of the same atom, carbon. Diamond has a tetrahedron structure while graphite has a flat hexagonal structure. Why is diamond transparent while graphite is not (at ...
Marijn 's user avatar
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1 vote
4 answers
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Can you compress pure carbon into diamonds?

I'm doing a science project, and we're wondering if it is possible to compress pure carbon (C) to the point where it becomes diamonds? What would the process have to be and how much energy would this ...
Andrei Adam's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
185 views

Diamonds are not forever?

It is frequently stated that although graphite is the more stable allotrope of carbon at STP, the activation energy of the diamond-to-graphite transformation is so high that our diamonds will never ...
Martin Kochanski's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
215 views

Might a diamond with impurities (doped) be less brittle than a pure diamond?

Diamonds are extremely hard (resistant to pressure) but quite brittle (susceptible to shock). Sufficient impurity will compromise hardness, but I am finding it difficult to find out the effect on ...
Eubie Drew's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
252 views

Is possible to synthesize diamond at relatively lower pressures (6 to 7 GPa vs 12 GPa)?

Pure binderless nanopolycrystalline diamond can be produced from graphite when the graphite is treated with more than 12 GPa pressure and at least 2100°C temperature . If we treated graphite or ...
abduoman's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
434 views

Crystal field in diamond

The crystal field effect occurs in ionic crystals and causes a splitting of the magnetic quantum levels of the cation. The magnitude of the splitting may be roughly computed by obtaining the potential ...
curiouscientist's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
70k views

Will a diamond break if I hit it with a hammer [closed]

I was having this discussion with my friend about the hardness of diamonds. I would like to know if a diamond will break or not if hit with a hammer. Different sources across the internet mention ...
Yashbhatt's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
630 views

Can a strained diamond actually become conductive?

According to about.com, "The electrical resistivity of most diamonds is on the order of 1011 to 1018 Ω·m" (source) However, according to the diamond band diagram, it seems that under a certain ...
Sparkler's user avatar
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21 votes
2 answers
5k views

Melting diamond and cool down as diamond

Is it possible to melt diamond? And if possible while let it cool will it became diamond again?
sugunan's user avatar
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11 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why doesn't diamond glow when hot?

In an answer to this SE question, the respondent explains that heating a perfect diamond will not cause it to glow with thermal blackbody radiation. I don't quite follow his explanation. I think it ...
garyp's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
21k views

X-ray imaging and diamond

Why doesn't diamond show up in X-ray imaging? Diamond is the hardest substance ever known, and as we know, X-ray radiation is produced when a cathode ray of high frequency hits a very high atomic mass ...
Four Seasons's user avatar
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