ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT PROCESS FOR INDUSTRIAL DIAMOND PURIFICATION

摘要

The most commonly applied process for industrial diamond production is the graphite transformation at high-pressure and high temperature conditions. The product obtained after this synthesis is an agglomerate and the process of diamond extraction from it is known as purification. Until today, the most used method for diamond purification is by the dissolution of the agglomerate with acids. The consequence of this method is that, for an annual world production of 250 ton of synthetic diamond, there is a consumption of 40 thousand liters of sulfuric acid and 10 ton of potassium dichromate. Even though the majority of these chemicals are recycled, the environmental pollution and hazards caused by their use is inevitable. Taking these points into consideration, the objective of the present work was to show the applicability of an alternative process for diamond purification based on alkaline melt. In terms of environmental safety the alkaline melt seems to be a more adequate process since no toxic substance is generated.