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Not
all diamonds are forever: Researchers see nanodiamonds created in coal fade
away in seconds
Date:
May 22, 2014
Source:
Rice University
Summary:
Scientists show that some diamonds are not forever.
Through the creation of nanodiamonds in treated coal scientists also show that
some microscopic diamonds only last seconds before fading back into
less-structured forms of carbon under the impact of an electron beam.
...................
Images taken by Rice University scientists show that some
diamonds are not forever.
The Rice
researchers behind a new study that explains the creation of nanodiamonds in
treated coal also show that some microscopic diamonds only last seconds before
fading back into less-structured forms of carbon under the impact of an
electron beam.
The research
by Rice chemist Ed Billups and his colleagues appears in the American Chemical
Society's Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.
Billups and
Yanqiu Sun, a former postdoctoral researcher in his lab, witnessed the
interesting effect while working on ways to chemically reduce carbon from
anthracite coal and make it soluble. First they noticed nanodiamonds forming
amid the amorphous, hydrogen-infused layers of graphite.
It happened,
they discovered, when they took close-ups of the coal with an electron
microscope, which fires an electron beam at the point of interest.
Unexpectedly, the energy input congealed clusters of hydrogenated carbon atoms,
some of which took on the lattice-like structure of nanodiamonds.
"The
beam is very powerful," Billups said. "To knock hydrogen atoms off of
something takes a tremendous amount of energy."
Even without
the kind of pressure needed to make macroscale diamonds, the energy knocked
loose hydrogen atoms to prompt a chain reaction between layers of graphite in the
coal that resulted in diamonds between 2 and 10 nanometers wide.
But the most
"nano" of the nanodiamonds were seen to fade away under the power of
the electron beam in a succession of images taken over 30 seconds.
"The
small diamonds are not stable and they revert to the starting material, the
anthracite," Billups said.
Billups
turned to Rice theoretical physicist Boris Yakobson and his colleagues at the
Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials in Moscow to
explain what the chemists saw. Yakobson, Pavel Sorokin and Alexander Kvashnin
had already come up with a chart -- called a phase diagram -- that demonstrated
how thin diamond films might be made without massive pressure.
They used
similar calculations to show how nanodiamonds could form in treated anthracite
and subbituminous coal. In this case, the electron microscope's beam knocks
hydrogen atoms loose from carbon layers. Then the dangling bonds compensate by
connecting to an adjacent carbon layer, which is prompted to connect to the
next layer. The reaction zips the atoms into a matrix characteristic of diamond
until pressure forces the process to halt.
Natural,
macroscale diamonds require extreme pressures and temperatures to form, but the
phase diagram should be reconsidered for nanodiamonds, the researchers said.
"There
is a window of stability for diamonds within the range of 19-52 angstroms
(tenths of a nanometer), beyond which graphite is more stable," Billups
said. Stable nanodiamonds up to 20 nanometers in size can be formed in
hydrogenated anthracite, they found, though the smallest nanodiamonds were
unstable under continued electron-beam radiation.
Billups
noted subsequent electron-beam experiments with pristine anthracite formed no
diamonds, while tests with less-robust infusions of hydrogen led to regions
with "onion-like fringes" of graphitic carbon, but no fully formed
diamonds. Both experiments lent support to the need for sufficient hydrogen to
form nanodiamonds.
Kvashnin is
a former visiting student at Rice and a graduate student at the Moscow
Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT). Sorokin holds appointments at MIPT
and the National University of Science and Technology, Moscow. Yakobson is
Rice's Karl F. Hasselmann Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials
Science, a professor of chemistry and a member of the Richard E. Smalley
Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Billups is a professor of
chemistry at Rice.
The Robert
A. Welch Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research supported the research.
Story
Source:
The above
story is based on materials provided by Rice University. The original article was written by
Mike Williams. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal
Reference:
- Yanqiu Sun, Alexander G. Kvashnin, Pavel B. Sorokin, Boris I. Yakobson, W. E. Billups. Radiation-Induced Nucleation of Diamond from Amorphous Carbon: Effect of Hydrogen. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2014; 1924 DOI: 10.1021/jz5007912
Cite This
Page:
Rice University. "Not all
diamonds are forever: Researchers see nanodiamonds created in coal fade away in
seconds." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 22 May 2014.
<www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140522141449.htm>.