Can You Make a Diamond With a Hydraulic Press?

People love watching things get crushed, and that's exactly what the Hydraulic Press Channel have been doing since 2015. Most recently they obtained an eye-catching 1.2 carat diamond to see what would it take to break it.

Though granite may be one of the hardest materials on Earth, its hardiness wasn't too tough for our hydraulic press to break it into pieces. Let's investigate why that happened.

The Hardness of Diamonds

Diamonds are known for being among the hardest natural materials on Earth. Only certain substances on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness can scratch them, giving them a rating of 10 on this measure of mineral hardness. Their resilience makes them ideal for jewelry use since even sharp blows from an object such as a hammer will not break it; however, just because a diamond is hard doesn't mean it is indestructible; even though hard diamonds are fragile objects which may break due to factors like dropping them on hard floors!

As such, the Hydraulic Press Channel--a YouTube channel dedicated to crushing all manner of things with their powerful hydraulic press machine--decided to put an actual 1.2-carat diamond through their rigorous test. The result was stunning but not unexpected: despite being an incredible hard material like diamond is, it shattering quite easily under the pressure of the hydraulic press into tiny fragments; not crushed completely into dust due to it being cut well--yet it does become very brittle and no longer indestructible!

Many outside the materials science field often confuse hardness and toughness. Hardness refers to a material's ability to resist scratching while toughness measures its resilience against breaking under force. Diamonds are quite hard but not tough as they can be cracked or chipped by sharp impacts such as hammer strikes. Furthermore, diamonds may also be fragile if their structure contains flaws or they have been improperly cut - these factors should all be considered before purchasing diamonds as investments.

However, it is possible to create diamonds using a hydraulic press. The method involves high temperatures, pressures and long exposure times; similar to what diamond anvil experiments employ when applying extreme pressures on small areas of synthetic diamond; research has demonstrated these areas can tolerate millions of pounds per square inch pressure without cracking under pressure; unfortunately this amount of pressure would not transform coal into diamonds due to loose carbon molecules that won't respond as effectively; nonetheless it would produce synthetic diamonds.

The Toughness of Diamonds

Diamonds may seem indestructible, yet are easily broken. A new video from Hydraulic Press Channel on YouTube proves this point with their use of a hydraulic press to crush anything it comes across; using their monster press, they put a 1.2 carat diamond to the test; it quickly shattering in mere fractions of a second!

Diamond is unblemished, which suggests it would hold up well against pressure exerted by a hydraulic press, given its hardness rating of 10 on Mohs' scale of mineral hardness -- over 40 times harder than corundum, the mineral from which rubies and sapphires are made. But hard doesn't equal tough; diamonds are no exception!

While diamond's atomic structure is extremely strong, its covalent bonds that connect carbon atoms may become fragile under stress and cause it to crack or otherwise sustain damage - leaving it susceptible to cracking and other forms of damage more easily than, say quartz or tin which have comparable hardness but much lower breakage risk.

Hammer blows may cause diamonds to fracture along their crystal faces or culets if hit at just the right angle, leading to cleavage fractures along crystal faces or culets, creating a cleavage fracture along either. A faceted diamond may also be prone to breaking if its girdle is very thin or has tapered points; luckily though, its rupture toughness is very high, meaning that it won't easily fracture under typical pressures such as those from hammers.

Though these facts may seem clear, many still mistakenly believe diamonds to be impenetrable - particularly given that no other object can scratch them aside from another diamond. But "hardness" refers only to resistance against surface impact damage; diamonds don't possess infinite strength if subjected to enough force.

The Elastic Modulus of Diamonds

Diamonds possess one of the highest elastic moduli among all materials (in relation to their tensile strength). Their exact value depends on sample volume/size, the lattice perfection of diamonds and application of force; its exact value can be measured experimentally using nanoindentation with a Berkovich indenter on samples mounted between two anvils - typically 1/2 to 1 carat diamonds cut according to standard jewelry cuts (modified brilliant, drukker standard and boehler almax), typically 1/2-1 carat diamonds of standard jewelry cut jewelry cuts (modified brilliant, drukker standard and boehler almax); typically these anvils consist of 500 micron diameter diamond powder embedded into materials like Rhenium Kapton Cu or Be which allow the pressure gradients through to reach samples easily. Anvils typically feature small holes which allow pressure gradients through to reach them from where samples can then pass directly.

As the Hydraulic Press Channel continues to amass millions of views for its videos, we can expect it to come face-to-face with precious gems such as this 1.2 carat lab-grown diamond donated by an anonymous donor with lots of cash to spare.

The video opens by explaining that diamonds may be rated 10 on Mohs hardness scale, but this does not guarantee they cannot be cracked. Actually, chipping a diamond can be achieved easily through dropping or striking at it with powerful blows at an appropriate angle.

Diamonds are so much harder than corundum, the next hardest mineral, that it takes significant force to break them apart. But it's important to keep in mind that hardness and toughness are two different characteristics - while diamonds may be hard and indestructible, their point can easily scratch an iPhone screen!

The video shows a 1.2-carat diamond being put inside of a hydraulic press before slowly moving forward until it meets with an anvil and pressure gradually rises until the diamond breaks apart - an event which only took fractions of seconds, yet was quite remarkable to witness.

The Tensile Strength of Diamonds

Diamonds may be one of the hardest substances on Earth, but that doesn't make them indestructible. Although its incredibly strong atomic structure allows a diamond to withstand many impacts without shattering, powerful blows or chemical attacks on its structure may still damage it and chip its edges or dissolve under high pressure - thus disqualifying diamonds as bullet or bomb ammunition.

Diamond anvil experiments have demonstrated that diamonds can withstand pressures up to 600 gigapascals - equivalent to what would be found at the center of Earth - though its tensile strength falls significantly short of this number.

Tensile strength of materials depends on their chemical bonds between its atoms; since diamonds are composed of carbon atoms arranged tightly into hexagonal lattices, their chemical bonds cannot bend as easily compared with other materials and so it takes more energy and resources to alter their shape than with coal or steel materials.

Tensile strength of materials can also be affected by their internal stress, or energy required for them to break apart into separate particles. Diamond has numerous carbon atoms connected by covalent bonds which requires an enormous amount of energy to break.

So while it may not be possible to form diamonds from coal or steel, a hydraulic press can still break them. The force exerted on it by the hydraulic press is enough to break apart its carbon atoms and release them into the surrounding air.

The Hydraulic Press Channel has quickly become one of YouTube's most-watched channels with its videos of objects being crushed in a massive hydraulic press. Their latest upload shows an eye-catching diamond being reduced to dust within just a fraction of a second - an incredible feat given how expensive and rare its source material was.