Scientists Melted a Diamond, And It Really Didn’t Go The Way They Expected
Extremely weird.
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Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have conducted groundbreaking experiments revealing surprising details about how diamonds behave under extreme conditions. Using the OMEGA Laser Facility at the University of Rochester, scientists led by Marius Millot subjected tiny diamond samples to pressures exceeding those found at Neptune’s core while simultaneously measuring changes in their atomic structure. The findings have resolved a long-standing scientific puzzle regarding diamond’s melting temperature.
Previous experiments from 2009 had measured diamond’s melting point at significantly higher temperatures than theoretical predictions suggested. The new research, utilizing advanced X-ray observation technology, determined the actual melting temperature to be approximately 7,300 Kelvin at one terapascal of pressure. This corrected measurement aligns closely with quantum-mechanical calculations, ending decades of disagreement between experimental data and theoretical models that had frustrated the scientific community.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the X-ray observations revealed an unexpected mechanism during the melting process. Rather than transitioning through an intermediate crystal structure as theory had predicted, the diamond maintained its familiar cubic lattice until the moment of complete melting. The researchers attribute this unusual behavior to the extreme speed of compression, which provides insufficient time for the carbon atoms to reorganize into the theoretically favored intermediate phase before the material fully liquefies into disordered carbon.
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Originally reported by Sciencealert →
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