Growth of diamond microcrystals by the oriented attachment mechanism at high pressure and high temperature

• Published in: Technical physics letters Vol. 43; no. 1; pp. 53 - 56
• Main Authors: Kidalov, S. V., Shakhov, F. M., Shvidchenko, A. V., Smirnov, A. N., Sokolov, V. V., Yagovkina, M. A., Vul’, A. Ya
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Classical and Continuum Physics; Crystal structure; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Single crystals
• ISSN: 1063-7850; 1090-6533
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063785017010084

For the first time it has been experimentally shown that a powder of detonation nanodiamonds (DND) and a saturated acyclic hydrocarbon, mono- or dibasic alcohol, used as the reaction mixture after treatment at high pressures (5–8 GPa) and high temperatures (1300–1800°C) results in the formation of diamond single crystals up to 15 micron in size. The Raman spectrum indicates that the diamonds have a perfect of crystal structure. It has been suggested that the oriented attachment mechanism is responsible for growth of micrometer-size diamond single crystals out of DND particles with sizes of about 5 nm under these technological conditions.