Making diamonds at room temperature succeeded, only required a few minutes in time - Australian research team

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

室温でダイヤ作成に成功、所要時間わずか数分　豪研究チーム

2020.11.20 Fri posted at 15:30 JST

（ＣＮＮ） オーストラリア国立大などの研究チームは１８日、室温環境でわずか数分間のうちにダイヤモンドを作成することに成功したと発表した。

宝石用原石は通常、地球の奥深くで数十億年にわたって炭素が圧縮され高温になることで生成される。これに対し、オーストラリアの研究チームは今回、膨大な圧力をかけてこのプロセスをわずか数分に加速。室温でダイヤを作れるようにした。

オーストラリア国立大とロイヤルメルボルン工科大学が主導する国際研究チームによると、実験ではアフリカゾウ６４０頭がバレエシューズにつま先に乗った状態に等しい圧力をかけることで、室温で２種類のダイヤを作ることに成功したという。

作成に成功した２種類のダイヤは構造的に異なる。ひとつは宝石として通常装着されるものに似たダイヤ、もうひとつは「ロンズデーライト」と呼ばれるタイプだ。ロンズデーライトは隕石（いんせき）の衝突地点で見つかり、大半のダイヤよりも硬度が高い。

合成ダイヤ自体は新しいものではなく、より安価かつ倫理的で環境に優しい石を見つける目的で、１９４０年代から実験室で作成されてきた。ただ、実験室で作られるダイヤは通常、炭素に高熱を浴びせて生み出される。

今回はこうしたダイヤを室温で作ることができ、研究者からは興奮の声が上がった。特に、硬度が高いロンズデーライトには、採掘現場で「超固体」と呼ばれる物質を切る技術に活用できる可能性もあることから、大きな期待が寄せられている。

Translation

(CNN) A research team formed by the National University of Australia and others announced on the 18th that they had succeeded in producing diamonds in just a few minutes at room temperature.

Gemstones were usually produced deep in the earth by compressing and heating carbon for billions of years. In contrast, this Australian research team now put a lot of pressure on the process to accelerate it to just a few minutes. This made possible to make diamonds at room temperature.

According to an international research team led by the National University of Australia and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, it was said that this experiment found that by applying pressure equal to 640 African elephants to the tip of a ballet shoe, two types of diamonds could be created successfully at room temperature.

These two types of diamonds that had been successfully created were structurally different. One was a diamond similar to what was normally worn as a jewel, and the other was a type called "Lonsdaleite". Lonsdaleite was found at meteorite collisions and was harder than most diamonds.

Synthetic diamonds themselves were not new, it had been created in the laboratory since the 1940s with the aim of finding cheaper, more ethical and environmentally friendly stones. However, diamonds made in the laboratory were usually produced by exposing carbon to high heat.

This time, researchers were excited as it was able to make such diamonds at room temperature. There was a great expectation in particular for lonsdaleite which had high hardness because it could be used in the technology for cutting substances called "Supersolids" at mining sites.

              So, it is an invention that could benefit the mining industry, to say the least.