Posted by Robert Bradbury: It isn’t nanoassembly but it is real diamond. ScienceBlog is discussing how the Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory can produce 10-carat (half-inch thick) single-crystal diamonds using CVD. Unlike previous work it appears that this is flawless & colorless diamond. They believe the method may be adaptable to growing up to 300 carat (1″) diamonds as well as diamonds with unique shapes.
While it isn’t “diamondoid”, one has to wonder, given the flexibility of CVD, how far the method could be pushed towards “diamondoid”. Certainly multi-element crystals seem possible as would things like silicon on diamond (for micro/nanochips with high heat removal capacity).
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JohnFaith provided a similar submission with some additional references.
“According to this article, researchers at The Carnegie Institution of Washington have developed a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process for growing large (10-carat), clear, single-crystal diamond at about 100
microns/hour. While not a nanoscale technology, who can refuse an article with the quote ‘The diamond age is upon us.'”
