Man-Made' Diamonds — A Progress Report' 



By C. G. Suits 



Vice President and Director of Research 

 General Electric Company 



[With 4 plates] 



This is, first of all, a story about carbon, the most aggressively 

 gregarious element of the periodic table. Carbon, compounded, is so 

 versatile in nature that the major branches of chemistry are determined 

 entirely by the presence or absence of this element. Carbon, by itself 

 in crystalline form, offers another distinctive dichotomy: It can be 

 slippery, messy graphite worth a few pennies a pound; and, at the 

 other extreme, it can be magnificent diamond, nature's hardest and 

 most glamorous substance, sometimes valued at millions of dollars an 

 ounce. 



Converting a plentiful, cheap, and even worthless material into 

 something rare and valuable was once thought to be a peculiar pre- 

 occupation of alchemists. If a play on words will be forgiven, we 

 might say that this is now a worthy occupation for all chemists, all 

 physicists, and all metallurgists — at least in industrial laboratories. 



There have, of course, been some spectacular successes in this effort. 

 Witness, as examples, the conversion of nearly worthless natural silicon 

 found in sand to the highly valuable semiconductor-grade silicon on 

 which a large segment of the semiconductor industry is based ; or the 

 conversion of cheap hydrocarbons — residues from coal, oil, and gas — 

 to monomers and then to polymers of great utility and economic value. 

 The planning, execution, and fruition of a successful venture in modern 

 alchemy are among the great satisfactions of today's scientists, tech- 

 nologists, and engineers. 



It is not surprising that the history of science is replete with at- 

 tempts to convert base carbon to noble diamond, and that the story is 

 interlaced with claims and disclaimers, mystery and jealousy, suspense 

 and intrigue. 



' Trademark of General Electric Co. 



* Reprinted by permission from American Scientist, vol. 52, 1964. 



439 



