• Question: Can liquid diamond be made and if so, what temperature would be needed?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Edward Hughes

      Edward Hughes answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Diamond is a particular form of carbon, where the atoms are arranged in a very strong lattice. If you heat up diamond at normal pressure, it’s atoms actually rearrange to form another type of carbon called graphite. Pencil leads are made of graphite.

      If you keep heating graphite at normal pressures, it actually goes straight from being a solid to a gas! This is a special process called sublimation, which some compounds have.

      But you can make liquid carbon from diamond with high enough pressure! If you crank up the pressure to 10 million times the normal amount, you can get diamond to melt into a liquid.

      I’d suggest you don’t try this at home!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      Diamond is the world’s strongest natural substance, so like Edward’s mentioned, it’s very hard to melt!

      If you heat diamond up to 700 degrees, it turns to graphite. To get the pressure you need to melt it, you need magnetic fields thrown at diamond faster than the Earth orbits the Sun!

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