Martin Rapaport interviewed retired brigadier General Carter Clarke, founder of The Gemesis Corporation, to discuss synthetic diamonds.
Excerpt:
We apply considerable pressure — approximately 850,000 pounds per square inch — and about 1,600 degrees centigrade of heat and grow them over a period of about three-and-a-half days. There are three parts in the core that goes inside the growth vessel: graphite — which is a source of carbon — a metal catalyst and a diamond seed, which can be a synthetic or natural diamond. When you apply the pressure and heat, the metal melts and the carbon atoms from the graphite source filter down, atom by atom, through that molten metal, and start to grow on the diamond seed, which is, of course, carbon. The seed attracts the atoms from the graphite and it grows in layers until the carbon source is exhausted.
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