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Heat conductionmeaning they reduce the flow of electricity. Blue diamonds owe their semi-conductive property to boron impurities, which act as a doping agent and cause p-type semiconductor behavior. Diamonds appear cold and hard, but they're good conductors of heat because of the strong chemical bonds within the crystal.
Most natural blue diamonds contain boron atoms which replace carbon atoms in the crystal matrix, and also have high thermal conductivity. Heat is a property contained in most materials, and has the tendency to flow to areas of lesser heat. A substance that is a thermal insulator reduced the flow of heat.
Diamonds are actually excellent conductors of heat, better than more well-known heat conductors like copper or silver. Diamonds will warm-up. It's as if when we talk about a diamond's "fire," it can refer to it figuratively as well as literally!
As much as we associate diamonds for their beauty and use as jewelry, only about 20% of all diamonds mined are gem-quality. The rest are good only for industrial uses. Because it's the hardest substance, it's used to cut other materials such as stone, metal and concrete. It's also used to grind eyeglasses and computer chips.
Most industrial diamonds are mined, but scientists have successfully engineered synthetic industrial diamonds that have more versatile uses than mined diamonds. Now major companies like GE and even DeBeers make synthetic diamonds. The primary use for these synthetic industrial diamonds is to conduct heat away from devices that require a constant temperature for safe and proper operation.
Gem cutting - how it has changed over the years (50% of the original rough diamond is lost during the
How does a lump of mineral or crystal become a dazzling diamond, ruby or sapphire? It's an amazing process called gem cutting or lapidary and makes all the difference in the final value of the stone. It was developed first in Venice in the early...
Citrine
gemstone, citrine is actually somewhat rare in nature. Citrine is one of the most affordable gemstones, thanks to the durability and availability of this golden quartz. Named from the French name for lemon,"citron," many citrines have a juicy lemon...
Garnet
garnet lantern to safely steer his Ark through the darkness of the night and the great flood. Garnets are found in jewelry from ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman eras. Many courageous discoverers and travelers wore garnets for protection, as they...
Smithsonian Collection
Some of the world's most spectacular diamonds and other gems are located in the National Gem Collection in the Museum of Natural History in Smithsonian Collection in Washington, D.C. In the collection are diamonds known to almost everyone, such as...
Ruby and Sapphire
It's hard to imagine that a mineral with a name as mundane as corundum yields gems as exquisite as the ruby and sapphire, or even that these two stones, so different in color and mystique, are actually the same mineral family. Lucky you if...
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