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Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond as a form of carbon is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insoluble in water.
Carbon is the fourth most abundant chemical element in the observable universe by mass after hydrogen, helium, and oxygen. Carbon is abundant in the Sun, stars, comets, and in the atmospheres of most planets. [52] Some meteorites contain microscopic diamonds that were formed when the Solar System was still a protoplanetary disk. [53]
In diamond form, carbon is one of the costliest elements. The crystal structure of diamond is a face-centered cubic lattice having eight atoms per unit cell to form a diamond cubic structure. Each carbon atom is covalently bonded to four other carbons in a tetrahedral geometry.
Diamond and graphite are two allotropes of carbon: pure forms of the same element that differ in structure. If heated over 700 °C (1,292 °F) in air, diamond, being a form of carbon, oxidizes and its surface blackens, but the surface can be restored by re-polishing. [47]
In diamond, all the carbon-to-carbon bonds, both within a layer of rings and between them, are in the staggered conformation, thus causing all four cubic-diagonal directions to be equivalent; whereas in lonsdaleite the bonds between layers are in the eclipsed conformation, which defines the axis of hexagonal symmetry.
Carbonado, commonly known as black diamond, is one of the toughest forms of natural diamond. It is an impure, high-density, micro-porous form of polycrystalline diamond consisting of diamond, graphite , and amorphous carbon , with minor crystalline precipitates filling pores and occasional reduced metal inclusions. [ 1 ]
Scientists have figured out how to grow synthetic diamonds in just 150 minutes—and that could be bad news for natural jewels.
In the first approach, researchers emulate the short, directional covalent carbon bonds of diamond by combining light elements like boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. This approach became popular in the late 1980s with the exploration of C 3 N 4 and B-C-N ternary compounds. The second approach towards designing superhard materials ...