The word "diamond" comes from the Greek language. It is translated into Russian as "". Indeed, to damage this stone, superhuman efforts must be made. It cuts and scratches all the minerals known to us, while itself remaining unharmed. Acid does not harm him. One day, out of curiosity, an experiment was carried out in a forge: a diamond was placed on an anvil and hit with a hammer. The iron one almost split in two, but the stone remained intact.
Diamond burns with a beautiful bluish color.
Of all solids Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity. It is resistant to friction, even against metal. This is the most elastic mineral with the lowest compression ratio. An interesting property of diamond is to luminesce even under the influence of artificial rays. It glows with all the colors of the rainbow and refracts color in an interesting way. This stone seems to be saturated with the color of the sun and then radiates it. As you know, a natural diamond is not beautiful, but it is the cutting that gives it true beauty. A gemstone made from a cut diamond is called a diamond.
History of experiments
In the 17th century in England, Boyle managed to burn a diamond by shining a sunbeam on it through a lens. However, in France, experience with calcination of diamonds in a melting vessel did not produce any results. The French jeweler who conducted the experiment found only a thin layer of dark plaque on the stones. At the end of the 17th century, Italian scientists Averani and Tardgioni, while trying to fuse two diamonds together, were able to establish the temperature at which a diamond burns - from 720 to 1000 ° C.
Diamond does not melt due to its strong crystal lattice structure. All attempts to melt the mineral ended with it burning.
The great French physicist Antoine Lavoisier went further, deciding to place diamonds in a sealed glass vessel and filling it with oxygen. Using a large lens, he heated the stones and they completely burned. Having studied the composition of the air, they found that in addition to oxygen, it contains carbon dioxide, which is a compound of oxygen and carbon. Thus, the answer was received: diamonds burn, but only with access to oxygen, i.e. outdoors. When burned, diamond turns into carbon dioxide. That is why, unlike coal, after burning a diamond, not even ash remains. Experiments by scientists have confirmed another property of diamond: in the absence of oxygen, diamond does not burn, but its molecular structure changes. At a temperature of 2000°C, graphite can be obtained in just 15-30 minutes.
IN Everything in this world does not last forever. Almost everything turns to dust over time. And unfortunately no one can change this. Still, there are things in our world that, according to many, are unchangeable. Today I want to talk about one such object - a diamond. Diamond is rightfully considered one of the hardest minerals in the world. And yet…
Did you know that diamonds can burn? This interesting phenomenon was discovered as a result of experiments that were carried out with this mineral. As a result of experiments, it turned out that at high temperatures (850-1000 degrees C), a very hard mineral changes its structure and turns into pure carbon dioxide, leaving no other substances. This was proven for the first time in 1694, when scientists from Italy K.A. Tardjoni and J. Averani tried to combine into one big diamond several small diamonds. The combustion temperature at which diamond is burning in a stream of pure oxygen it is a little less: 720-800 degrees C. Moreover, the mineral burns with a beautiful blue flame.
Again, interesting, in my opinion, is the fact that it is possible to produce ordinary graphite from diamond. To do this, you just need to heat the stone, in the absence of oxygen, to a temperature of 2000 degrees C.
All of the above facts have been proven many times by scientists in practice, and subsequently scientifically substantiated.
So women remember that diamond is burning, a diamond on your finger can turn into ordinary graphite from high temperature. Remember this and be careful not to get excited.
Burning diamonds. Video.
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And the boiling diamond? Does the mineral exist in molten form in the natural environment? We will look for answers to these and other questions in the presented material.
How were diamonds formed in the depths of the Earth?
According to scientists, diamonds could have appeared during the formation of the planet's core as a result of the impact of enormous pressure on the molten magma. Precious stones advanced to the surface areas of the earth's crust due to gas formation processes in deep rocks. As a result, so-called diamond pipes were formed, which are voids in rocky soil with large mineral deposits.
Material properties
Before finding out what the melting point of diamond is, let's look at the properties of the mineral:
- Diamonds have the highest hardness of any existing fossil. For this reason, no material is capable of destroying or scratching its surface. He himself can damage any physical object.
- Diamond is a highly effective insulator. It is resistant to acids and other aggressive chemical environments.
- Diamond has the highest thermal conductivity of all solid minerals. The gem can be held in the palm of your hand as long as you like. At the same time, its temperature will remain unchanged.
- Diamond has a unique luminescence. Light rays of any origin, when passing through a mineral, make it glow brightly and shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow.
Structure
Essentially, diamond is made of carbon atoms. However, each of them is located in the central part of a tetrahedron - a polyhedron that is formed from the four planes of a triangle. This ensures an extremely strong bond between the atoms. This explains the highest hardness, as well as the impressive melting point of diamond.
Diamond Melting Conditions
In 2010, in the course of experiments, physicists from the laboratory of the University of California, located in Berkeley, determined the level of temperature exposure on diamond, which leads to its melting. Scientists have found that it is impossible to convert the material into liquid form under normal conditions, regardless of the level of heating. Reach specified purpose This is possible only when the diamond is exposed not only to temperature, but also to high pressure. It is necessary to increase the pressure so that the mineral does not turn into graphite. Thus, the transition of diamond into liquid form is an extremely difficult process.
What is the melting point and boiling point of diamond?
According to data obtained during the study of the properties of the material, its melting in air space under high pressure occurs when heated to 850-1000 o C. Diamond can be brought to a boil by exposing it to a temperature of 1800 to 2000 o C in a vacuum. In both cases, when cooled, the mineral transforms into graphite.
To determine the melting point of diamond, scientists conducted experiments using a small natural mineral, the mass of which was 1/10 of a carat. The boiling of the surfaces of the material occurred under the influence of a shock wave created by short-term laser pulses.
Researchers were able to establish what the melting point of diamond is (in degrees) only by creating a pressure that was 40 million times higher than the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level. When the pressure dropped to 11 million atmospheres, solid particles began to form on the surface of the boiling mineral, which did not sink, but floated like ice in water.
Where are diamonds found in the earth's crust?
These minerals are extremely rare. However, industrial deposits today are being developed on almost all continents of the globe. The only exception is Antarctica.
Until the mid-19th century, it was believed that minerals formed in river sediments. Later, the first diamond-bearing cavities were discovered in rocky mountain soil at a depth of several hundred meters.
According to scientists, the age of some diamonds ranges from 100 million to 2.5 billion years. Researchers managed to obtain “older” minerals of unearthly origin. The latter were brought to the planet along with meteorites that formed in outer space even before the formation of the Solar System.
Do diamonds exist in molten form in natural conditions?
The melting point of diamond is so high that the mineral can no longer exist in boiling form on Earth. However, what about space objects? According to scientists, the melting point of diamond is still maintained in the depths of planets such as Neptune and Uranus. It is noteworthy that the latter are 10% formed from carbon, which is the structural basis of this mineral.
According to many scientists, on the above planets there are entire oceans of diamonds in liquid, boiling form. This hypothesis explains why the magnetic field of these celestial bodies behaves so strangely. After all, Neptune and Uranus are the only planets in solar system, whose geographic poles do not have a clear position and are literally separated in space. To confirm an interesting hypothesis, all that remains is to simulate similar conditions on Earth experimentally. However, such a decision is at the moment remains extremely expensive and labor intensive. Therefore, it is not yet possible to determine for sure whether there really are entire oceans of molten diamonds on nearby planets.
Diamond is a precious stone, but its properties were only appreciated by physicists in the 16th century. And this despite the fact that the stone was found several centuries earlier. Of course, in order to assess the full significance of the mineral, it was necessary to conduct a lot of experiments. They provided information about the hardness of the stone, the melting point of the diamond, and other physical characteristics. But since then the stone has been used not only as beautiful accessory, but also for industrial purposes.
The assessment was carried out in special laboratories. And as a result it was found out chemical composition diamond, the structure of its crystal lattice, and several phenomena were discovered.
Melting Diamond
Melting point experiments
As is known, the crystal lattice of a substance has the shape of a tetrahedron with covalent bonds between carbon atoms. It is possible that this structure was the reason for several discoveries related to diamond melting.
Mineral encyclopedias give diamond melting rates of 3700-4000 degrees Celsius. But this is not entirely accurate information, since they do not follow generally accepted patterns. In particular, the following effects were discovered during melting:
- Using high temperatures(2000 degrees Celsius without oxygen), diamond can be turned into graphite. Moreover, the further behavior of this substance with increasing temperature cannot be explained logically. But it is impossible to reverse the process. In extreme cases, you can get a synthetic stone, the crystal lattice of which will differ from natural diamonds.
- If you heat a stone to a temperature of 850-1000 degrees Celsius, it turns into carbon dioxide, that is, it disappears without a trace. Such an experiment was carried out in 1694 by researchers from Italy Targioni and Averani, trying to melt the stones and combine them into one diamond.
- Research was also carried out in 2010 in California, where a group of physicists concluded that it is impossible to achieve diamond melting if the temperature of the stone is gradually increased. To find out the melting index, in addition to temperature, it is necessary to apply pressure to the diamond, and this makes the measurement difficult. To actually transform the diamond into a liquid state, scientists needed to put in a lot of effort. To do this, they used laser pulses that acted on the stone for several nanoseconds. In this case, the stone in liquid form was obtained at a pressure 40 million times greater than atmospheric pressure at sea level. In addition, if the pressure dropped to 11 million atmospheres, and the temperature on the surface of the mineral was 50 thousand Kelvin, then solid pieces appeared on the stone. They did not sink in the rest of the liquid and looked like pieces of ice. With a further decrease in pressure, the pieces accumulated, forming “icebergs” afloat. Scientists have compared that this is how carbon behaves in the composition of the planets Neptune and Uranus; on the surface of these celestial bodies there are also oceans with liquid diamond. But to prove this assumption, it is necessary to send satellites to the planets, which at the moment is impossible to quickly accomplish.
- If you act on a stone with short light pulses in the ultraviolet range, small depressions will appear in the mineral. Thus, the experiment confirms the disappearance of the stone under the influence of powerful ultraviolet radiation, that is, the transformation of diamond into carbon dioxide. Therefore, diamond-based ultraviolet lasers quickly break down and become unusable. But you should not worry about the fact that the diamond on the jewelry will disappear over time: to remove one microgram of the mineral, you will have to keep the diamond under ultraviolet light for about 10 billion years.
So, melting index is an interesting characteristic of diamond. It is still a subject for study. With the advent of technology, scientists are finding new ways to test this characteristic. Based on it, one can draw conclusions about the origin of the stone and discover new ways to use diamonds.
Good day, dear friends. Diamond is incredibly resistant to various types of influences from the outside world. Even so, there is still a diamond melting point that can only be achieved if certain factors are met.
In fact, measuring the melting point of diamonds is not that easy. The whole point is that it has an impact and high blood pressure. Otherwise, there is a risk of the stone turning back into graphite.
Experiments with the melting point of diamonds
In this story, the national Lawrence Livermore Laboratory distinguished itself. Lawrence. After all, scientists from the University of California conducted an unusual experiment, which revealed that diamond melts at a temperature of 3700-4000 degrees Celsius and at a pressure of 11 GPa. The experiment was carried out back in 2010.
Unlike many ordinary solids, diamond cannot be turned into a liquid by simply raising the ambient temperature.
These observations were shared during the experiment by Eggart John, one of the leaders of the process. He also said that for this condition the diamond must be additionally kept under very high pressure. As you might imagine, measuring the temperature of a diamond is very difficult.
And you can’t do without pressure: in air, diamond combustion occurs at a temperature close to 1000 degrees Celsius, and in a vacuum at 2000 degrees it turns into graphite (it is impossible to reverse the process; at best, you will get a synthetic diamond inferior to its brothers). There is no intermediate state in both cases.
Moreover, an experiment to study the mineral was carried out at the end of the 17th century by Italian scientists, who decided to fuse several specimens into a single whole at all costs. As a result, it was only possible to determine the melting point of the stone.
It was also possible to find out at one time that melting cannot be achieved with ultraviolet rays. After all, in this case the mineral simply begins to turn into carbon dioxide. For this reason, it was not possible to create ultraviolet lasers using stone - they simply become unusable. But for ordinary diamonds everything is not so bad. After all, for the complete disappearance of one microgram of a mineral it will take a long 10 billion years.
Progress of the main experiment
And here is the progress of the experiment itself, conducted in 2010:
- Scientists took a very small diamond (1/10 carat).
- Using nanosecond laser pulses, shock waves were generated, creating enormous pressure.
- Upon reaching pressure 40 times greater than atmospheric pressure at sea level, the diamond reached a liquid state.
But it didn't end there. Scientists began to reduce the pressure and lower the temperature. As a result, it turned out that the diamond begins to return to solid form (though in pieces) at a pressure of 11 million atmospheres and 50,000 Kelvin. At the same time, these pieces floated in the remaining “broth” like ice floes in the sea. Scientists decided to further lower the pressure, but not change the temperature. And the diamond began to behave like ordinary water - even more “icebergs” began to appear in it, and the formations themselves became larger.
Unusual hypotheses
Based on similar experiments, conclusions were drawn about the possibility of the existence of similar conditions on Uranus and Neptune. The thing is that both of these planets consist of a significant 10% carbon.
There is a version that oceans of molten diamond could be the basis for an unusual magnetic field for Neptune and Uranus, because their poles are separated (!). That is, the magnetic pole does not coincide with the geographic pole.
But for now, hypotheses remain just hypotheses. After all, sending satellites to both planets or trying to simulate their atmospheres on Earth is difficult and expensive. But one day we will find out for sure what is really happening there.
By the way, if you are interested in the topic of space and these unusual planets, then we invite you to watch an educational video about them.
Secrets of the Universe precious stones not yet fully revealed. Visit often and learn a lot about these amazing minerals. See you soon!
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