What Is A Diamond?
Nobody could imagine that a piece of crystalline carbon is the most valued of all gems. Diamonds are the hardest known natural material resulting from mineral carbon. The Diamond is named after the Greek world “adamas”(unconquerable) because of its characteristics, diamonds are mostly used in jewelry, but there are numerous industrial applications in which they are also used.
Diamonds are the most costly gem among other mineral stones, and for many centuries an icon of love, symbolizing a relationship as strong as the gem itself. In its pure form, diamonds occur naturally in nature and can be found transparent and opaque, formed by tetrahedral bonded carbon atoms with high refractive index and moderate dispersion.
However, you can only find diamonds deep down in the earth, where high pressure and temperature of our planet propitiate its creation. This occurrence is usually found not less than 180 kilometers below the earth’s surface. At such a depth, crystalline carbons are formed with metals, molten rocks, and other materials, with temperatures ranging from 1100º C to 1400º C.
Depending on the region and circumstances surrounding the mines, prime mineral carbon may receive in the mantel small amounts of different substances that result in diamond impurities, such as sulfur and nitrogen that give color or special characteristics to diamonds that devaluate or increase the cost of a gem.
White diamonds with impurities losses value but not hardness. A pink diamond is the rarest of all the gems and of course, is higher in cost than the price regular white diamonds, having the same characteristics except their color. Although, the hardness of all diamonds is undoubtedly their main quality, those from the Australian regions of New England and New South Wales are claimed to be the hardest diamonds in the world.
Diamonds can only be polished using diamonds, hence this one of its uses in industry. After polishing the mineral carbon, the resulting diamond is usually a very small perfect to semi perfect gem piece. Cutting the gem is extremely meticulous because the hardness of a diamond may vary in accordance with the direction of the cut.
Shaping a diamond can be complicated and requires a skilled artisan to do such task. Shape can also make the price of a diamond fluctuate enormously. Round brilliant cuts are usually priced by weight, but other shapes can be costly due to the complexity and the presence of color or imperfections in the surface can also influence in the value of diamonds.
Perfection of shapes based on either empirical or mathematical analysis can give a crystalline carbon a fancy facet and proportions arrangements that make diamonds a rare and costly piece. Diamonds resulting from secondary or alluvial deposits are usually opaque and covered by a gummy coat.
In industrial applications, diamonds are used as electric semiconductors and insulators especially rare blue. In addition, diamonds are used to polish and drill hard materials, including other types of jewelry pieces. In the early 1900s, diamonds were found useful in drilling for oil, although, the technique was first applied by the Chinese in 1100 BC to drill for water.
Today, diamonds are used in countless applications, and they are still the most popular gems.