Sciencemadness Discussion Board

how can I create synthetic diamonds at home. I'm trying to use it for cutting all sorts of metals

13enigma - 9-8-2017 at 14:24

I wouldn't want to go to the store and purchase some on my own since they cost a lot of money. And I can't keep buying new ones over the ywars.
Online shows a way to make it in a microwave but that produces a very low grade diamond that isn't capable of staying intact.

Synthetic diamond making machines cost thousands of dollars. So it wouldn't be smart to go for that option.

What could I do, I'm in this predicament, what would be the best way to do it? Are there cheaper methods? Cheaper machines to make it form??

ficolas - 9-8-2017 at 14:43

Trying to create synthetic diamonds just to cut metal?
How are you going to cut with them after you create them? Diamond cutting wheels for dremel or angle grinder aren't that expensive. I dont know how long they will last, but pretty sure that is cheapper than making diamonds at home

[Edited on 9-8-2017 by ficolas]

13enigma - 9-8-2017 at 15:40

Okay well got any tips on making diamonds at home???

DistractionGrating - 9-8-2017 at 15:59

Forget making diamonds at home. Focus instead on using a Philosopher's Stone to turn lead into gold. You can then purchase all the diamonds you need!

j_sum1 - 9-8-2017 at 16:14

Not too expensive.
Here's 2kg of diamonds for 1000 bucks.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Synthetic-Diamond-Lapping-Powder-170...


More realistically, try this seller. That's where i got some nice samples for my element collection.
http://stores.ebay.com/yuriy06?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

[Edited on 10-8-2017 by j_sum1]

13enigma - 9-8-2017 at 19:26

What's this talk about smelting iron and placing it with carbon. It is said that once they mix and cool. The carbon crystallizes into diamonds

Assured Fish - 9-8-2017 at 20:55

@13enigma im sorry but wtf are you talking about.
First off the idea on making diamonds at home is bat shit insane, do you even comprehend the kind of insane conditions required to make a diamond.
To illustrate, the most widely used method involved heating carbon nanoparticles up to 3000*C under a minimum pressure of 510,000 psi, usually though they do it at 1,500,000 psi.

This CANNOT be done at home, period. it would likely require an investment of a few hundred thousand dollars minimum, though more likely a few million.
Quote:

What's this talk about smelting iron and placing it with carbon. It is said that once they mix and cool. The carbon crystallizes into diamonds

How fucken high were you when you wrote this, for starters iron doesn't expand when it cools, it expands when it is heated, so that already pokes a massive hole in your idea. Second is that by mixing carbon with molten alloys or iron you end up with carbonized steel or iron, which is already an extremely well known process that we as a species have been doing or hundreds if not thousands of years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carburizing

Please, atleast have the decency to google your questions before you start asking them here. Ideally you should be doing your own research before asking any kind of question here.

Bump.


[Edited on 10-8-2017 by Assured Fish]

Neme - 10-8-2017 at 03:35

I heard about graphite powder in molten manganese, letting it solidify (to make pressure and high temperature) and then dissolving in acid and filtering the diamond.

However I think it's bullshit, try searching online for a while for real procedure.

AJKOER - 10-8-2017 at 04:00

One logical reason one would need to make a hard substance for drilling at home, if I am permitted to speculate, would be perhaps secretive (like in illegal) activities.

Still however, a better alternative may be just have the item (high quality drill bits designed for drilling hard surfaces) not delivered to your address, but like a 'friend' (aka, the designated fall guy) address, assuming you are not able to effect a direct cash purchase without being on camera.

There is still the issue of how one pays for the purchase online and conceals ones identity, but that is an issue for another forum.

You may also have a time element factor (like until the owner returns home, the police arrive, your mother calls,...) as hard surfaces, due to heating issues on drilling, usually require a slow drilling process.

Good luck in any event, and say hi to your mom.

[Edited on 10-8-2017 by AJKOER]

wg48 - 10-8-2017 at 08:20

I don't believe it, but perhaps you can try it and report back. The guy in this insructable claims to have made small diamonds with his home micrwave oven!!!

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Synthetic-Diam...

I recommend if you try it, try it with an oven your about to replace.

Melgar - 10-8-2017 at 11:32

This is something I actually know a lot about. There are two main ways of making synthetic diamonds, HPHT (high pressure, high temperature) and CVD (carbon vapor deposition). The thing with putting graphite in molten iron was one of the first serious attempts at HPHT, and worked ("worked" is being generous, granted) because the iron shrinks as it cools, crushing the graphite inside.

However, all industrial synthetic diamonds are made by crushing graphite in tungsten anvils at high temperatures. Huge tungsten anvils are too expensive for home chemistry, however you can buy diamond grit from China for a decent price:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/synthetic-diamond-mic...

They often give prices in carats though. One carat is 0.2 grams.

The other way, CVD, produces larger, higher-quality diamonds, and is done by bombarding a chamber full of low-pressure methane and hydrogen with microwaves so it forms a plasma. Occasionally, carbon radicals form, ie a single carbon with no hydrogens attached. These will then attach to seed crystals that have been placed in the chamber. This is how synthetic gemstone-quality diamonds are made. However, this is very expensive, slow, and energy-intensive, such that it's actually cheaper to purchase natural diamonds above 1 carat or so.

The other option is to buy natural diamonds that aren't gemstone quality. These are quite cheap, and you can get a 3-carat rough diamond for maybe $10.

Assured Fish - 10-8-2017 at 18:18

I will retract my Bump.
I found the following article.
http://carbon.atomistry.com/artificial_diamond.html
Quote:

Two hundred grammes of Swedish iron were covered with sugar-charcoal in a graphite crucible, heated to 3000° C. in the electric furnace, and then plunged beneath water to cool the molten metal suddenly. The iron of the regulus was dissolved in hydrochloric acid, and there remained three kinds of carbon: (a) graphite, (b) convoluted strips, as in Diablo Canon meteoric iron, and (c) several greyish-black particles which were proved to be diamond.
Better results were obtained by cooling the molten iron, saturated with carbon, in molten lead, because no layer of steam retarded cooling and external solidification.
A further improvement consisted in packing a cylinder of soft iron with sugar-charcoal, strongly compressing the charcoal by means of a screw stopper of the same metal, and then immersing the cylinder in molten iron which was contained in a crucible and had been heated in the electric furnace for a few minutes. After the introduction of the cylinder the crucible was at once removed from the furnace and rapidly cooled.
The success of the experiment depends on rapid cooling, because iron, like water, expands on solidifying, and so the external crust exerts an enormous pressure inwards upon the core, which is rich in carbon. By this means partially or wholly transparent diamonds were obtained which satisfied the most rigorous criteria. The largest, however, were not more than 0.6 mm. in diameter.

I am still extremely skeptical, however the individual who had accomplished this work was nobel prize winner Henri Moissan, so that perhaps gives it some potential validity.
Though the statement of iron expanding on solidification is somewhat baffling, as i was under the impression that the reason water expanded on solidification was due to hydrogen bonding and the fact that little to no hydrogen bonding (exchanging of protons between molecules) occurs in the solid state whereas in the liquid state this occurs enough to form an electrostatic attraction between the molecules pulling them closer together.
Am i to throw this idea out the window now?

Twospoons - 10-8-2017 at 19:31

It could be the FCC to BCC lattice transition is what is being referred to as 'expanding on cooling'. this happens around 900C.