May 22, 2014

Not all diamonds are forever



Rice University researchers see nanodiamonds created in coal fade away in seconds

Images taken by Rice University scientists show that some diamonds are not forever.

The Rice researchers behind a new study that explains the creation of nanodiamonds in treated coal also show that some microscopic diamonds only last seconds before fading back into less-structured forms of carbon under the impact of an electron beam.

The research by Rice chemist Ed Billups and his colleagues appears in the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters.