Formation of carbon macromolecules in diamond contacting with liquid carbon

Abstract

In the present work, consideration is given to the non-brittle breaking of a diamond. The diamond in contact with droplets of liquid carbon was graphitized and the formed graphite stretched the diamond in the space between the droplets. Transmission electron microscopy was used to identify amorphous carbon in a region of the stretching. High resolution observations provided in-depth information about amorphous carbon inner structure. Mixture of branched and linear carbon macromolecules was observed. Molecular dynamics showed that sp bonds, responsible for the formation of macromolecules develops in a sp3 stretching diamond near its stability boundary. Transformation of bonds from sp3 to sp is by a sp2 formation. All this shows that in the process of thermal destruction diamond manifests itself not as a crystal, but as polymer passes from a dense mesh to linear form at tension.