If this could be done fairly cheaply, diamond would become a hugely important engineering material. Diamond would be an immensely strong structural material, for example, enabling the construction of much higher skyscrapers and longer bridges than current ones. Diamond might also be used for applications such as turbine blades, although the low toughness of diamond would need to be overcome. As the toughness of a diamond sample varies depending on the orientation of the sample, it may be possible to make high-toughness components from a diamond-based material (perhaps by having many thin layers of diamond, with each layer having a different crystal orientation to adjacent layers).
2007-02-01 23:49:19 · 5 answers · asked by martin48732 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
No. If it could be, it would already be. The amount of pressure used in the process means that you can't do really big sections at a time. And your logic is flawed about it making the best construction material - modern building need flexibility to wtihstand wind and earth tremors, etc.
Maybe this will be possible at some time in the future, but not for a while yet.
2007-02-01 23:55:23 · answer #1 · answered by cuddles_gb 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I imagine that it would be very difficult to make large blocks of it cheaply. Other, less expensive materials could probably do the job better. I can hardly imagine that a bridge made of diamond would be stronger than one made of a metal; hardness does not necessarily indicate structural integrity. Diamond tends to shear along planes, which would probably not make it a good structural material.
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2007-02-02 08:03:24 · answer #2 · answered by Ben C 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Diamond has no tensile strength so it would not be a suitable building material. As for making it in big blocks cheaply - it is not possible with the technology that we have now or are likely to have in a hundred years. It is a hard material but think of it in strength terms likened to a ceramic tile
2007-02-02 08:01:56 · answer #3 · answered by Professor 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
YA I JUST MADE ONE IN MY LAB 2FT*3FT*3FT. . . . . . . . .honestly no. . . . .the pressure require for such manufacture is huge and not conceivable in the presnt age but who knows someday it'll be possible
2007-02-02 09:21:55 · answer #4 · answered by Stellar 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
quite improbable because of te\he heat and pressure requirement.
2007-02-02 08:02:08 · answer #5 · answered by lnfrared Loaf 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋