Posted on 11/27/2007 1:14:05 PM PST by Red Badger
Conjuring gemstones from thin air sounds like one of the alchemist's more ambitious projects. But that is what a team of chemists from China is claiming to have achieved by making small diamonds from carbon dioxide. "We are changing a waste gas into gems," claims Qianwang Chen, head of the team producing the diamonds at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province. The team claims its method could be cheaper and more efficient than some existing methods of synthesising diamonds, which require pressures of up five million atmospheres and temperatures that reach 1400 °C. Chen and his colleagues make their diamonds by reacting CO2 with metallic sodium in a pressurised oven at only 440 °C and 800 atmospheres. "This is the lowest temperature reported so far for diamond synthesis," he says. After 12 hours, the grains of diamond can be separated from the sodium carbonate, graphite and unreacted CO2 that remain. Small gemstones Metallic sodium is a hazardous material, as it reacts violently with water vapour. To ensure that it all gets used up, the team starts with an excess of CO2. "We have now undertaken the procedure more than 80 times without any safety problems," says Chen.... Chen's team reports that the first diamonds reached diameters of about a quarter of a millimetre. While that is far too small for gems in wedding rings and necklaces, it is ideal for use in industrial cutting tools and abrasives. But since the group's paper was accepted by the journal, they have improved the process to the point at which it can be used to make small gemstones. "We can grow diamonds as large as 1.2 millimetres," Chen says. "They are transparent and colourless, and so could be used as gems."
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Shorting diamond stocks...shorting...shorting
I wouldn’t be surprized to find that the technology was stolen from a lab in the US that employs chinese scientists or grad students. There are many thousands of them here with virtually no background checks who are still loyal to china.
You know you give your wife one of those Chinese diamonds and an hour later she’ll want another one.
LOL!!! Good one!!
So, how much CO2 is produced heating the oven to 440 degrees for 12 hours?
“Diamonds conjured from greenhouse gas (CO2)”
Don’t tell Algore.
In China? Probably quite a bit............
Diamonds can also be produced using METHANE.............
After a cheap Mexican dinner I usually feel like I’m making diamonds with methane.
Yes, I’ve put out quite a few “gems” in my lifetime.......
I think some of the earliest used an acetylene torch.
coal miners are expendible in China
The corned beef and cabbage I had tonight should be worth a caret or two.
“You know you give your wife one of those Chinese diamonds and an hour later she’ll want another one.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I would gladly give my wife another one any time she wants it if she would just stop asking for diamonds 80)
In other news, hundreds of newly engaged chinese women die from lead tainted diamonds.
Chinese diamonds full of lead and melamine.
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