A photo from open sources
In his laboratory at the Geoinstitut Bavaria, Germany, Dan Frost trying to simulate conditions that can be found in lower layers of the earth’s mantle. More than 2,900 kilometers under the surface of the earth, the lower mantle is warmed up to more than 2200 degrees Celsius, and the pressure in it is 1.3 million times higher atmospheric.
Exploring these incredible conditions, Frost discovered several unusual ways to create diamonds. After all, despite his beauty, diamonds are just carbon atoms lined up in shape a crystal.
Frost’s research began with the hypothesis that in ancient times rocky rocks pulled carbon dioxide from the oceans of the proto-Earth. Then, as these rocks plunged deep into the mantle, high pressure inside the planet extracted CO2 from them. And as soon as carbon dioxide was free, the mantle iron took him oxygen. As a result of this, pure carbon remained, which was compressed into diamonds by high temperatures and pressure. It was all just a hypothesis – but that’s exactly what Frost discovered when he reproduced this process by actually creating a diamond from clean air.
Funny detail: since all food (and, in fact, all living creatures) contain carbon, then the Frost team was able to successfully create diamonds from such an everyday thing like peanut butter. True, hydrogen, which is bonded with peanut butter to carbon, doesn’t allows you to make this process perfect – and in addition, even with Under ideal conditions, carbon transformation is slow. On the getting a diamond in two to three millimeters takes several weeks.
However, this technique still has great potential and very useful for various practical needs. Manipulating involved in process ingredients, scientists hope to get better superconductors as well as heavy-duty diamonds for industrial application.
