Russian scientists have created a device for obtaining diamond germs from bubbles
Scientists of the Laboratory of Geochemistry of Carbon named after EM. Galimov of the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry (GEOKHI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences created an industrial synthesis unit for obtaining diamond seeds. Nanometer diamonds are formed in vapor bubbles, Gazeta.Ru was told about this in the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation .
The setup itself is easy to use. The principle of its operation is as follows: the pump starts the flow of carbon-containing liquid, which passes through a special nozzle. As a result, cavitation occurs – the formation of bubbles and their collapse. Nanodiamonds are “born” in bubbles.
According to a researcher at the Laboratory of Carbon Geochemistry named after EM. Galimov Nikita Dushenko, in this way it is possible to obtain nanodiamonds with semiconductor properties, which is important for microelectronics, and luminous nanodiamonds for medicine.
“The unique advantages of the proposed method and installation include the possibility of using both pure hydrocarbon liquids containing only carbon and hydrogen atoms, and water-soluble compounds containing additional, or “external”, atoms of oxygen, nitrogen, silicon, boron and others. This makes it possible to synthesize ultrafine diamonds with added “external” atoms – donors (or acceptors) necessary for the formation of semiconductor properties. The luminescence that occurs when “external” atoms are added to the structure of ultrafine diamonds makes it possible to consider them as an innovative means of medical diagnostics at the cellular level,” Nikita Dushenko told Gazeta.Ru.
The installation does not require a special high pressure chamber or plasma torch, it uses standard components (pump, pneumatic valve, etc.), which can be used without complicated installation and maintenance conditions.
The method proposed by GEOKHI RAS scientists makes it possible to obtain separate nanometer-sized diamond particles without subsequent growth. Such diamonds can be used in microelectronics, medical diagnostics to create nanocomposites, materials science, for example, in the production of drill bits, as well as in quantum physics and biology.
In addition, the method will reduce the energy and material costs for obtaining the material and significantly reduce environmental risks in the synthesis of the product.
