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This is great news for scientific research- diamonds for experimental purposes are a huge market that's impeded by their artificially high cost. From a material

This is great news for scientific research- diamonds for experimental purposes are a huge market that's impeded by their artificially high cost. From a material standpoint there's a multitude of uses for them- ranging from use in CERN's particle detectors for their high optical clarity, to creating nanodiamond transport mechanisms for drugs because of their resilience to microcellular activity. By creating a mass market and demand for these artifically produced diamonds, the cost of production will significantly drop where it could be more affordable for researchers and companies to invest their time and ideas into.

gruez 8y ago
>This is great news for scientific research- diamonds for experimental purposes are a huge market that's impeded by their artificially high cost is this really the case? AFAIK industrial diamonds are quite cheap. if anything, debeers's meddling made industrial diamonds cheaper, because it suppressed the demand from the jewelry market.
- mrob 8y ago
  Industrial diamonds are cheap if all you want is an abrasive, but diamonds also have very high thermal conductivity, very high index of refraction (without the birefringence of silicon carbide), and could potentially be useful as semiconductors. We need big and cheap single crystal diamonds to make full use of them. A strong market for synthetic gemstone diamonds could make that happen.
  - ridgeguy 8y ago
    And with the NV- (nitrogen vacancy) center, they're quantum computing devices. The NV- center is a qubit.
  - madengr 8y ago
    There was a an engineer several years ago developing a process to create large sheets of diamond. He claims to have received numerous death threats.
    - userbinator 8y ago
      Was he related to this? http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences/a-155-carat-diamond-with-92-mm-diameter.html http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Single-crystal_CVD_diamond_disc.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Single-crystal_CVD_diamon...
      - madengr 8y ago
        Don’t think so. It was a guy in the USA, about 10 years ago. Though looks like many are doing it now with CVD. Diamond semiconductors are the holy grail, though there is current work growing diamond heat spreaders directly under GaN active regions.
        userbinator 8y ago
        That was probably the Apollo Diamond guy: https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/ https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/ CVD is probably the better technology for producing bulk diamond, since it doesn't require the extreme temperatures and pressures of the HPHT process; and there's existing CVD processes and equipment from the semiconductor industry which provide a good body of knowledge to work with. CVD grows plates of diamond, whereas HPHT makes small cubes.
        madengr 8y ago
        Yes, that was it. Thanks.
userbinator 8y ago
The Chinese have already done that --- at a fraction of the cost of DeBeers. Search AliBaba for "CVD diamond" and be amazed. Huge plates at <$100/carat.
- im3w1l 8y ago
  That's still pretty expensive imo. I want $100 to get me a few ounces.
Sean1708 8y ago
> De Beers has produced synthetic diamonds for years through a subsidiary called Element Six, but it has limited their use to industrial applications. I'm guessing "industrial applications" includes scientific research, so I doubt too much will change.

gruez 8y ago

>This is great news for scientific research- diamonds for experimental purposes are a huge market that's impeded by their artificially high cost is this really the case? AFAIK industrial diamonds are quite cheap. if anything, debeers's meddling made industrial diamonds cheaper, because it suppressed the demand from the jewelry market.

mrob 8y ago
Industrial diamonds are cheap if all you want is an abrasive, but diamonds also have very high thermal conductivity, very high index of refraction (without the birefringence of silicon carbide), and could potentially be useful as semiconductors. We need big and cheap single crystal diamonds to make full use of them. A strong market for synthetic gemstone diamonds could make that happen.
- ridgeguy 8y ago
  And with the NV- (nitrogen vacancy) center, they're quantum computing devices. The NV- center is a qubit.
- madengr 8y ago
  There was a an engineer several years ago developing a process to create large sheets of diamond. He claims to have received numerous death threats.
  - userbinator 8y ago
    Was he related to this? http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences/a-155-carat-diamond-with-92-mm-diameter.html http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Single-crystal_CVD_diamond_disc.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Single-crystal_CVD_diamon...
    - madengr 8y ago
      Don’t think so. It was a guy in the USA, about 10 years ago. Though looks like many are doing it now with CVD. Diamond semiconductors are the holy grail, though there is current work growing diamond heat spreaders directly under GaN active regions.
      - userbinator 8y ago
        That was probably the Apollo Diamond guy: https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/ https://www.wired.com/2003/09/diamond/ CVD is probably the better technology for producing bulk diamond, since it doesn't require the extreme temperatures and pressures of the HPHT process; and there's existing CVD processes and equipment from the semiconductor industry which provide a good body of knowledge to work with. CVD grows plates of diamond, whereas HPHT makes small cubes.
        madengr 8y ago
        Yes, that was it. Thanks.

userbinator 8y ago

The Chinese have already done that --- at a fraction of the cost of DeBeers. Search AliBaba for "CVD diamond" and be amazed. Huge plates at <$100/carat.

im3w1l 8y ago
That's still pretty expensive imo. I want $100 to get me a few ounces.

Sean1708 8y ago

> De Beers has produced synthetic diamonds for years through a subsidiary called Element Six, but it has limited their use to industrial applications. I'm guessing "industrial applications" includes scientific research, so I doubt too much will change.