How are diamonds formed in a lab(I am having trouble understanding the diamond seed)?
In: Chemistry
As best I understand it, they take a tiny bit of a natural diamond (the “seed”) and then use chemical processes to slowly drop a stream of individual carbon atoms onto that “seed,” like someone drizzling syrup over pancakes. Since the diamond is just made of carbon itself the atoms being drizzled over it bond to it, causing it to grow by latching onto its chemical structure. So they can use this to shape the diamond to whatever shape and size they want while it stays a pure diamond in terms of actual chemical structure.
Diamonds are literally Carbon, which has crystallized under intense pressure or heat. Thats what a Diamond is. A lab could very easily take some Carbon, add pressure/heat, and get Diamond.
^(Im sure that theres some science guys who are gonna tell me theres a lot more to it, but this sub is “Explain Like Im 5”, not “Explain like im writing a dissertation on it”)
Picture atoms like lego blocks. Normal matter is just a bucket of loose lego. There is no structure to it. But in crystals, like diamond, they are stacked together in an infinitely repeating pattern.
Your seed diamond is like an already completed lego project. All they are doing in a lab to grow it is putting more lego blocks on the outside. Its easier when there is a foundation to start building on. To do it from scratch it would be like shaking up a lego bucket and hoping they all stick together. With a seed they have a framework to stick to and a pattern to follow.
To put it in other other terms. Have you ever seen that super cooled water trick? You can freeze really pure water, and it won’t turn to ice unless you give it a smack. Ice is a crystal. The water in the bottle has no point for it to start building crystals from. When you smack it you create a nucleation point. A point for crystals to form around. Lab diamonds are like that. You are telling this hot mess of carbon to start building themselves *here*.
You know those little magnet balls that stick together? Imagine each of those balls is a carbon atom. They can stick together in all sorts of different patterns and form endless different shapes.
If you pick up a clump of those magnets and ball them up, pushing in from all directions, if you push hard enough any gaps will be forced out and you’ll be left with a clump of magnets very tightly packed together.
That’s how they make diamonds in a lab. They get a big machine to push down and a bunch of carbon atoms and force them so tightly together they form a crystalline structure…. a diamond.
Many chemicals (including diamond) have the atoms arranged in a particular, repeated pattern. The diamond seed follows that diamond pattern, and forms a starting point for more carbon to attach and continue that pattern, growing into a larger and larger diamond as carbon is added.
Without the diamond seed, the carbon would likely clump together in a non-diamond pattern, such as graphite or something else less orderly than diamond.
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