"Research Charcoal Weng Says Carbon" (XIII): Beethoven's Hair Becomes a Brilliant Blue Diamond

Diamond is regarded as the "diamond" of gems, and its basic component is only carbon. The carbon contained in organic matter will become diamond after long-term hot extrusion in the mantle hundreds of kilometers underground. In 2007, the media broke an eye-catching news: German composer Beethoven's hair was made into a bright blue diamond, which was the first diamond made of carbon from a celebrity or historical figure. Hundreds of years ago, people liked to cut off a few strands of hair and put them in a box for permanent preservation. The president of the University of Connecticut Archives in the United States was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for collecting the most valuable celebrity items and the most hair of historical figures. Beethoven's hair was also included in his collection. In 2007, he decided to give the famous composer's hair to the British company "Treasures of Life" for a charity auction. After identification, the company's experts burned the hair in the absence of oxygen, obtained 130 mg of carbon from 10 hairs, and then divided them into 3 parts. Each part of carbon was stored at a high temperature of 3000 degrees Celsius and about 70000 atmospheric pressure for 2 weeks to convert it into diamonds. Finally, the resulting diamonds were cut into circles and polished to pass the appraisal; one diamond was returned to the archival university collection, another was displayed in the archives of Life Treasures, and the third diamond was auctioned for charity on eBay (Electronic Harbor), accepting bids from buyers around the world. It is said that the diamond is expected to be sold for 500000 pounds, and it has decided to donate the proceeds directly to the "dream come true" charity organization, which realizes the wishes of seriously ill or terminally ill children, so that the diamond of this historical figure has the opportunity to help many children in need. Figure 1 is a portrait of Beethoven, and Figures 2 and 3 are photographs of the diamond produced and its comparison with the keys, respectively.

Figure 1 Portrait of Beethoven

Figure 2 Beethoven hair made of blue diamonds

Figure 3 Comparison of the diamond and the key

In fact, as early as 2004, diamonds made of carbon from animal ashes have appeared, and have become popular in France, Germany, Spain and other countries, and are deeply loved by some animal owners. At the beginning of 2007, the Swiss "Algordanza (Memory and Memorial)" company launched a service to make human ashes into diamonds. The weight of human ashes after cremation is generally 2500 grams to 3000 grams, and about 500 grams of ashes is enough to make a diamond. These synthetic diamonds sell for between € 3750 and € 15000, depending on size and cut. Many families of the deceased have ordered this kind of ashes diamond. They hope to turn the ashes of their deceased father, mother or spouse into diamonds and treasure them forever as a mysterious and meaningful memorial to eternity.

As mentioned in the rotating world of carbon (VII) carbon on the earth, people, like other animals, import new carbon-containing organic matter through food every day to provide energy for survival, and at the same time, continuously metabolize and update carbon atoms in various cells in the body by exhaling CO2 and excreting residual carbon-containing waste. After a hundred years, the carbon material contained in the whole body will destroy the fly ash and smoke, and will be completely decomposed into CO2 under the action of bacteria and oxygen. If these CO2 and daily exhaled CO2 are absorbed by plants, it is possible to reincarnate to the next generation of human body. What people can reincarnate is the carbon in the body. Compared with the organs of other parts of the human body, carbon atoms may stay in the hair and bones for a longer time in the life of a person, turning the carbon atoms into diamonds that can be preserved forever, although more It is hype, but for some special people, it cannot be said that it also has a certain commemorative value.

To turn human hair and ashes into diamonds, the carbon element in the organic matter needs to be separated first. Human hair can be carbonized to form carbon like carbon fiber. However, 85% of human ashes are potassium and calcium, so in the process of making diamonds, the first step is to separate the carbon from potassium and calcium. Then, like the carbon formed by human hair, the extracted carbon is crystallized into graphite allotropes of carbon at high temperature and pressure. Finally, the graphite is subjected to higher temperatures and pressures to crystallize into diamonds. The entire production process takes about six to eight weeks; in contrast, the formation of natural diamonds takes thousands of years. After the diamond is formed, it needs to be polished and carved and set on a ring or necklace. Depending on the size of the ashes diamond, the production costs allegedly range from $4400 to $16700.

We have mentioned before that any organic matter can be carbonized in the gas, liquid or solid phase to form carbon. Although carbon sometimes contains a very small amount of other elements, it can basically be regarded as elemental carbon, and they are sometimes called amorphous carbon, amorphous carbon or transition carbon, that is, elemental carbon that does not form a graphite structure or a crystalline structure such as diamond. For example, how many allotropes are there in carbon (IX) carbon? As mentioned in the article, elemental carbon has an endless number of allotropes (shapes), which have completely different forms and different physical and chemical properties. But any kind of elemental carbon can change and change like Sun Wukong's "seventy-two changes. Of course, this kind of change is not its own ability, but the conditions created by people's will. Figure 4 is a simple schematic of the conversion of organic matter to carbon and the conversion of various allotropes of elemental carbon.

Figure 4. Schematic diagram of elemental carbon conversion of organic matter into carbon and various allotropes.

As shown in Figure 4, carbon can be converted into graphite by heating and high temperature recrystallization, and graphite can be converted into diamond under high temperature and high pressure. If the graphite under the action of arc discharge to form a single or containing a large number of carbon atoms of carbon clusters, and re-growth, under different growth conditions can form fullerene, carbon nanotubes and atomic crystal monolayer graphene. Of course, the molecular crystal graphite can also be subjected to a simple mechanical exfoliation or chemical exfoliation method to form graphene with a single layer or a small number of layers. Graphite is a naturally formed mineral containing relatively pure carbon, and its reserves are much larger than diamond. Of course, people will think of using these cheap items to make expensive other carbon homotropes, such as diamond, etc. Instead of converting expensive diamonds into graphite. The process of converting diamond into carbon is extremely simple, as long as it is isolated from air heating, it will form a pile of powder carbon, burning in the air will become carbon dioxide. Therefore, we should avoid heat, strong light and fire when wearing valuable diamonds.

Diamond, fullerene, carbon nanotubes and graphene are in electronics, batteries, composite materials and other broad areas to develop different applications, the manufacture of these carbonaceous materials, in addition to the conversion of carbon-containing organic matter, by cheap carbon and graphite to transform will also be an important way.

This article is from Wang Maozhang Science Net blog.
Link address: http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-526286-476248.html