August 2020 - Lab Grown Magazine

August 2020 | LG | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 16 To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | August 2020 17 German scientists created this remarkable and world’s largest 155-carat LGD. In disk form, this 92-mm diamond is less practical for jewelry applications, and is better suited for optics, mechanics and electronics sectors. Shown here are Matthias Schreck, Martin Fischer, and Stefan Gsell with their single crystal diamond disc. (Photo: ©University of Augsburg/IfP/EP IV) One of the few books (published 2017) devoted to diamondiods and the first to give an exhaustive overview of the structures, properties, and current and possible future applications of diamondoids. By Seven Stauss and Kazuo Terashima. (Photo: JS Publishing For the process, the diamondoid samples were placed in a plum-sized pressure chamber (diamond anvil cell) that presses the powder between two polished diamonds. With a simple hand turn of a screw, the device can create the kind of pressure found inside the Earth. The samples were then heated with a laser. The researchers found that the three- cage diamondoid could organize itself into a diamond with surprising little energy. The transformation occurs in a fraction of a second, directly from diamondoid to diamond, without passing by the graphite form. The sample sizes inside the diamond anvil are tiny, mere specks, thus the process is not practical for the jewelry industry, at least not yet. “But now we know more about the keys to making pure diamonds,” adds Mao. The Really BIG News The largest lab-grown diamond in the world, at least as of now, weighs in at 155 carats and was created by German scientists from Augsburg University in 2017. At 92 millimeters, or 3.6 inches, in diameter, it surpasses the largest mined diamond in terms of surface area. By comparison, the Cullinan I weighs 532 carats, but the Augsburg’s LGD surpasses it in its diameter. It was grown using CVD, but has limited jewelry use since it is in a disc shape. While a plethora of applications in other industries abound, how does this help the LGD community? ►