How are diamonds formed in a lab(I am having trouble understanding the diamond seed)?
In: Chemistry
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*.
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