A person examines a diamond with a loupe.

We’ll Take DIY Diamond Making For $200,000

September 16, 2024 by Kristina Panos 12 Comments

They say you can buy anything on the Internet if you know the right places to go, and apparently if you’re in the mood to make diamonds, then Alibaba is the spot. You even have your choice of high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) machine for $200,000, or a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) version, which costs more than twice as much. Here’s a bit more about how each process works.

A sea of HPHT diamond-making machines. — A sea of HPHT machines. Image via Alibaba

Of course, you’ll need way more than just the machine and a power outlet. Additional resources are a must, and some expertise would go a long way. Even so, you end up with raw diamonds that need to be processed in order to become gems or industrial components.

For HPHT, you’d also need a bunch of good graphite, catalysts such as iron and cobalt, and precise control systems for temperature and pressure, none of which are included as a kit with the machine.

For CVD, you’d need methane and hydrogen gases, and precise control of microwaves or hot filaments. In either case, you’re not getting anywhere without diamond seed crystals.

Right now, the idea of Joe Hacker making diamonds in his garage seems about as far off as home 3D printing did in about 1985. But we got there, didn’t we? Hey, it’s a thought.

Main and thumbnail images via Unsplash

Diamonds Are For Data Storage

October 29, 2016 by Al Williams 17 Comments

Most data storage devices we currently use are, at their core, two-dimensional. Sure, a hard drive might have multiple platters, but the data storage takes place on a flat surface. Even an optical drive is effectively a single surface that holds data. At the City College of New York, they are experimenting with storing data in three dimensions using lab-grown diamonds and LASERs.

Usually, diamonds that have few flaws are more valuable. But in this application, the researchers exploit the flaws to store information. Optical memory that uses a volume instead of a surface isn’t exactly new. However, it is difficult to use these techniques in a way that is rewritable.

Diamonds are a crystalline structure of carbon atoms. Sometimes, though, a carbon atom is missing from the structure. That’s a vacancy. Another defect is when a nitrogen atom replaces a carbon atom. Sometimes a vacancy occurs next to a rogue nitrogen atom and that causes an NV (nitrogen vacancy) center.

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Diamond Thermal Paste: Update

September 6, 2009 by Mike Szczys 18 Comments

thermal_paste_test_rig

The need to conduct laboratory-style experiments runs deep in some people. [Freddyman] built an apparatus to test out several commercial and homemade thermal pastes, including the DIY diamond thermal grease we reported on last month. He setup each experiment in the middle of an air conditioned room, ran the heat sink fan for 30 minutes to equalize the temperature, then turned on the DIY heat generator that the paste and heat sink were connected to. He’s got a lot of data from tests he ran with the eight thermal conductors; air (using no paste), Arctic Silver 5, Ceramique, Dow thermal fluid, pure silicone oil, silicone and diamond slurry, Dow fluid with diamonds, and the Inventgeek.com remake.

One of the big problems with DIY paste is the air bubbles that are introduced into the slurry as you mix in the diamonds. All of the homemade pastes except one were put in a vacuum chamber in an attempt to remove tiny bubbles. The one that wasn’t put in the vacuum performed the worst of all the thermal conductors. In all cases, the commercially available products performed quite well while the DIY solutions delivered mixed results.