The Diamond Deception

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Breakthroughs in the production of synthetic diamonds may transform the marketing of the expensive gem.

Transcript

00:01During the following program, look for NOVA's webmarkers, which lead you to more information

00:05at our website.

00:09We can take some of this material and put it in this tube, which is constructed out

00:25of graphite, and we will be heating this in a high-pressure, high-temperature press.

00:39And in the process, the peanut butter will be carbonized.

00:49Cooking peanut butter at temperatures of 3,000 degrees, under pressure of over a million

00:55pounds per square inch, is a recipe that won't fill your stomach, but it might make you rich.

01:04So peanut butter to diamond.

01:08For nearly 50 years, scientists have known how to transform carbon-rich substances into

01:15small industrial diamonds.

01:17But the trick to making gem-quality stones has remained elusive.

01:24Until now.

01:28Today it may be possible to manufacture diamond jewels that are indistinguishable from the real

01:34thing.

01:35And it has the diamond industry worried.

01:38Justin, what if there is a way to synthesize diamonds that are non-detectable from natural

01:44diamonds?

01:45What if technology gives us the ability to make a synthetic diamond that no one knows is

01:50synthetic?

01:51What will happen to the mystique of this billion-year-old stone if science finally solves the mystery

01:58of making the perfect gem diamond?

02:02For this most brilliant and treasured jewel, Mother Nature, it seems, no longer holds the patent.

02:10Major funding for NOVA is provided by The Park Foundation, dedicated to education and quality television.

02:40This program is funded in part by Northwestern Mutual Life, which has been protecting families

02:48and businesses for generations.

02:51Have you heard from The Quiet Company?

02:53Northwestern Mutual Life.

02:55CNET.com, helping you choose the right technology product.

03:11And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

03:14And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

03:39Deep under the earth, in mines scattered around the world, thousands of tons of rock are displaced each day.

03:47In hopes of uncovering a few gem-quality diamonds.

03:52There's something magical about diamonds.

03:57They've captured the imagination of people for so long.

04:00I think it's things like, you know, the fact that they are three billion years old.

04:05The fact that it takes enormous effort to find diamonds in the world.

04:11It takes even more enormous effort to get them out.

04:14They have this magnificent way of dealing with light that separates them from all the other precious stones.

04:26They really are just a miracle of nature.

04:29But how would we feel if this miracle of nature could be copied atom by atom in a laboratory in just a few hours?

04:39Could any reproduction, no matter how faithful, ever compare with a natural stone?

04:45A diamond is a diamond.

04:50If it's carbon, and if it looks like a diamond, it's a diamond.

04:55It's not a simulant.

04:56Now, as we know, there are many simulants on the markets.

04:59There, cubic zirconia has been around for many years.

05:03A new simulant called moissanite has entered the marketplace.

05:08But these are all pretending to be carbon.

05:10They're not carbon.

05:12Hence, they're not diamonds.

05:15Diamonds have always invited fakery, which was often easy to spot.

05:20And while the techniques for producing look-alikes have improved,

05:24these sparklers are still no closer to being diamonds than a piece of glass.

05:30Real diamonds are much more difficult to make,

05:35and nearly impossible to break.

05:42Their chemical composition was only discovered in the late 1700s,

05:47after pioneering chemist Antoine Lavoisier found a way to burn one.

05:52In this lab, a real diamond is being heated to over 1500 degrees centigrade.

06:07After being dropped into liquid oxygen, the diamond burns completely.

06:11All that is left is carbon dioxide gas, proving that diamonds are nothing but pure carbon.

06:19The only pure carbon substance known in Lavoisier's time was graphite,

06:26the soft black material in pencil lead.

06:31You see, these structures couldn't be more different.

06:34You have graphite, which is a beautifully layered structure.

06:39It has layers of carbon atoms separated by very weak bonds.

06:44Now, within the layers, each carbon atom is beautifully coordinated to three other carbons.

06:52And that leads to very strong layers.

06:54But the bonding between the layers are exceptionally weak.

06:58By contrast, diamond, the hardest material known.

07:02And it's hard because of the way it's bonded together.

07:05This three-dimensional linkage in which every carbon atom is surrounded by four neighbors.

07:12And it forms a complete three-dimensional structure like a trestle bridge,

07:16an incredibly strong structure.

07:18You see the beautiful three-dimensional symmetry when you look in one direction.

07:23And you see, just rotate the structure slightly, and you get that four-dimensional symmetry.

07:28And it's the interaction of these symmetry elements that gives diamonds its strength.

07:35You know, a structure can only be as strong as its weakest direction.

07:39And in diamonds, there are no weak directions.

07:41Every bond is almost as strong as a bond can be.

07:45Could slippery, soft graphite be transformed into diamond?

07:54The hardest and most brilliant material on earth?

07:57For those who first dreamed of making diamonds, it must have seemed an insurmountable task.

08:03It was war that created the urgent need for manufactured diamonds.

08:24During the Second World War, diamond-tipped cutting tools were desperately needed to make weapons.

08:32Only diamonds were hard enough to cut and shape the tools required for making airplane parts,

08:37vehicle armor, and other military hardware.

08:42At the time, American industry was dangerously dependent on South African diamonds.

08:48Fearing the loss of this critical supply,

08:51the American government was determined to develop an alternative source.

08:57But it would be another decade before one was found.

09:01In 1951, General Electric started Project Super Pressure.

09:08Its aim was to make the world's first industrial diamonds with the same properties as natural diamonds.

09:18A young chemist, Tracy Hall, was invited to join the team.

09:25A person came in and announced that we had this big secret project that we're going to try and make diamonds.

09:33And so, hold up your hand, there's only one man we want.

09:37So I was the only one that held up my hand, so I got the job.

09:40Another member of the team was physicist Herbert Strong.

09:46And he said, how would you fellows like to try to make diamonds? Huh?

09:52Yeah, sure.

09:53Very enthusiastic about it. No thought of failing at all. No, of course not.

09:58The first challenge was to find a way of transforming graphite into diamond.

10:05The team soon learned that graphite, despite its softness, is amazingly resistant to change.

10:13The bonding between the layers is weak, so graphite flakes apart.

10:18But the bonding within the layers is incredibly strong.

10:21Because each carbon atom has four electrons that it wants to share with its adjacent atoms in covalent bonding.

10:29So, in graphite, there are three adjacent carbons to every individual carbon, sharing three electrons.

10:36And then the fourth electron resonates within these ring-like structures, adding additional strength to the graphite layer.

10:45The GE team first looked to nature when considering how to turn graphite into diamond.

10:52Because diamonds are found inside extinct volcanoes, embedded in a mineral.

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