How long diamond to graphite

They also validate the computer code used for the simulation. The advent of free-electron lasers with their ultra-short pulses now enabled the researchers to follow the phase transition on a femtosecond timescale. Job offers. Services for industry. DESY User. Easy language. Inhalt 2. However, it appears that the transition state is even further from the midpoint closer to starting material than we might have guessed. However the original article and estimate can can still be seen on the Wayback Machine and it estimates the activation energy to be I add an other answer : it depends what kind of people you are, if you are as crazy as them, of course not!

But ron 's answer is better sure! Well, it seems that diamond is not forever because upon exposure to sunlight it loses atoms. Diamonds burn, but the temperature at which they burn depends on whether or not the diamonds are in contact with air. In a stream of oxygen gas, diamonds burn at a low red heat initially. They will gradually rise in temperature and reach a white heat.

Then, the diamonds will burn uninterruptedly with a pale blue flame, even after the oxygen heat source is removed. The diamond crystals will gradually decrease in size and finally disappear. The flame at the last moment will flicker brightly and then disappear, leaving not a trace of ash or residue. For this to take place in an air mixture, the heat must be kept directly applied on the diamonds at all times.

If removed, the diamonds will not continue to burn, due to oxygen being diluted with nitrogen that does not support combustion. The most famous gems on Earth have new competition in the form of a planet made largely of diamond, astronomers say. The alien planet, a so-called "super-Earth," is called 55 Cancri e and was discovered in around a nearby star in our Milky Way galaxy. After estimating the planet's mass and radius, and studying its host star's composition, scientists now say the rocky world is composed mainly of carbon in the form of diamond and graphite , as well as iron, silicon carbide, and potentially silicates.

At least a third of the planet's mass is likely pure diamond, info. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Are diamonds really forever? Ask Question. The hardness of a crystal is measured on a scale, devised by Friederich Mohs, which ranks compounds according to their ability to scratch one another.

Diamond will scratch all other materials and is the hardest material known designated as 10 on the Mohs scale. It is the best conductor of heat that we know, conducting up to five times the amount that copper does.

Diamond also conducts sound, but not electricity; it is an insulator, and its electrical resistance, optical transmissivity and chemical inertness are correspondingly remarkable.

Moreover, diamonds disperse light. This means that the refractive indices for red and violet light are different 2. As a result, the gemstone acts like a prism to separate white light into rainbow colors, and its dispersion is 0. The greater the dispersion, the better the spectrum of colors that is obtained. This property gives rise to the "fire" of diamonds. The "brilliance" of diamonds stems from a combination of refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light.

For yellow light, for example, diamond has a high refractive index, 2. This means that when yellow light passes into a diamond and hits a second face internally at an angle greater than Most natural diamonds have ages between 1 billion and 3. Diamond is one of the hardest materials known, is transparent to light, and does not conduct electricity at all. Graphite is soft, gray, and can conduct electricity reasonably well.

Such different properties, from two substances that are composed of exactly the same kinds of atoms! This is the reason why diamond is harder than graphite. Diamonds do not last forever. Diamonds degrade to graphite, because graphite is a lower-energy configuration under typical conditions. In diamond, each carbon atom is bonded to four neighboring carbon atoms in a closely-packed three-dimensional grid.

In diamond, each carbon atom forms 4 covalent bonds in a tetrahedral structure. The sheets of carbon become bonded by weaker intermolecular forces. It is because of these weak intermolecular forces that the layersof graphite can slide over eachother, making the overall substance a lot weaker than diamond. Diamond is the high-pressure phase that forms deep in the earth.

Under normal conditions, diamond is metastable, meaning that it converts back to graphite when the process is initiated with sufficient energy. It can switch its internal structure to a different order, thereby turning into graphite. The outermost shell of each carbon atom has four electrons.