PHYSICAL

PROPERTIES

• home page
• production
• introduction
• history
• uses
• about us
• occurance
• alluvial diamonds

  Diamond is an isometric mineral , the hardest known natural substance (10 on Mohs scale) and it has a perfect cleavage parallel to octahedral faces,along which it can be sawn or broken . Diamonds crystals can be cut only by  diamond dust on a lap or rapidly rotating horizontal plate. In the random ,distribution of diamonds dust on a lap,some particles will present their hardest direction to the diamond that is being cut.Diamonds slowly burns to carbon dioxide in oxygen at a temperature as low as 900 degrees celsius and slowly inverts to graphite at temperature as low as thousand degrees  celsius . The rate of graphization is greatly accelerated when the diamonds are in contact with any of the group 8 elements or with alloys such as iron nickel and cobalt. Diamonds have the most conductivity of  any known substance.The points of diamonds used as cutting tools do not become hot owing to this very high thermal conductivity. All except a few diamonds are non conductors of electricity, but all are excellent heat conductors, superior to iron and steel . Under intense radiative bombardment, diamonds first become green ,then brown and finally black. If not carried to far ,the process may be reversed by heating to a white heat.