DIAMONDS AREN’T FOREVER
The long standing belief of diamonds being eternal comes to an end.
Did you know, that diamonds aren’t forever?
Yes, that is correct! There are actually several ways of making that so called eternal gem disappear!
1.You can heat it: if you heat up your diamond in the right environment, it will convert into graphite. Diamond and graphite being different forms of carbon. The heat will switch their internal structure or chemical bonds to different order.
2. You can burn it: as diamond are made of carbon, and as everything made of carbon burns, well so do diamonds. In contact with oxygen (gas or liquid) and the appropriate temperature, diamond is actually going to, pouf!, disappear. You’ll be left with carbon dioxide and nothing else.
3. You can irradiate it: exposed to intense UV light, diamond will indeed simply evaporate into thin air. Now this is freaky as the Sun is actually shining UV light. Don’t worry, our normal environmental conditions, do not allow for diamond to be actually visibly affected for us to notice. It would take billions of years before we can tell the difference. But with the right amount of pressure and high enough source of UV light…. Diamond becomes vapor. How cool is that?
Well I guess nothing’s forever after all…
Mélanie MATTHES
2020-09-10