What it takes to create an artificial version of the natural diamond engine found on Earth, but at extremely high speeds.
Some bereaved individuals in today’s society are resorting to a method that is not as well-known as a way to keep their loved ones close to them. This method involves turning the cremated remains of the deceased into a diamond that the grieving individual can preserve and possibly wear as jewelry.
You might have the ashes of a loved one in an urn, or you might have a piece of jewelry with a lock of an ancestor’s hair attached to it. You might even know someone who has repurposed cremated remains into works of art. These are some other examples of the ways in which, throughout the course of history, individuals have clung to material remnants of their ancestors over the course of time.
New Technique
And despite the fact that turning ashes into diamonds is a relatively new technique that is only utilized sometimes, the industry has expanded over the course of the last 20 years. LifeGem was the first firm in the United States to offer “memorial diamonds,” and they began operations in 2001. These days, there are so many businesses offering this service that you can seek up articles with titles like “The Top 5 Cremation Diamond Companies Turning Ashes into Diamonds.”
However, the process of how this is actually accomplished is extremely amazing. The procedure calls for a unique implementation of the machinery that were initially developed for the production of lab-grown diamonds, which is itself a rapidly developing area that offers consumers an alternative to stones that are extracted from the ground. The process involves subjecting pure carbon taken from cremation ashes to conditions of extremely high pressure and temperature. The end result is a duplicate of the natural diamond engine found on Earth, except operating at extremely high speeds.
When it comes to the formation of natural diamonds, the process begins anywhere from 100 to more than 1,000 miles below the surface of the Earth. It is there that the mantle is subjected to temperatures of more than 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures of approximately 725,000 pounds per square inch, conditions that would make the pressure cooker you use at home look like a child’s toy. It takes at least one billion years for carbon atoms to form their densest possible bond, which consists of each carbon atom combining with four other carbon atoms. This bond is only formed when carbon atoms are subjected to the conditions described above. The crystal gradually transforms into rough diamonds when the pattern is repeated. When our planet hurls them upward, through volcanic eruptions that originate deep inside the mantle, they land in the crust of the Earth.
Diamonds may be produced by memorial diamond firms in a matter of months, despite the fact that it takes our planet a billion years for carbon to change into diamonds. The first thing that needs to be done is to get carbon out of the remains. After a body has been burned, approximately one-fourth to one-fifth of the ash that is left over is composed of carbon. It’s not much, but it’s enough to plant the seed for the diamond that will eventually grow there.
Procedure
The beginning of the procedure requires either a half cup of ashes or 10 grams of hair, according to the recommendations made by the business Lonité. In the following phase, the carbon powder is transformed into graphite, a dark gray mineralized form of carbon that is used in pencils. A diamond is generated when highly refined and pure graphite is subjected to extreme levels of heat and pressure in an effort to simulate the effects of natural forces as accurately as possible. In most cases, the graphite is changed inside of a “growth cell,” which is an alloy of metals. The temperature in the cell is around 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is subjected to a pressure of approximately 850,000 pounds per square inch. That is equivalent to having the weight of three and a half blue whales pressing down on each and every inch. The heat is almost on par with the inferno that exists within the Earth’s mantle, which is around three times as hot as a pizza oven and nearly twice as hot as an oven used for cremation.
In addition, the presence of a diamond “seed” about the size of a sand grain stimulates diamond formation. The seed that is included within the growth cell serves as an attachment point for the initial crystals to form around as the carbon atoms in the graphite gradually rearrange themselves. The ultimate diamond will be of a greater size if it is allowed to grow under these extreme conditions of high pressure and high temperature for a longer period of time. After the diamond has been polished to a completed state, it will then have its facets cut into it so that it will dazzle.
