The diamond is nothing more than a crystal made only by carbon atoms, every carbon atom is tied, with a powerful covalent chemical bound, to 4 other carbon atoms, creating a cubic structure with benchmarking properties. In case the carbon atoms connect to only 3 other atoms, we have graphite, a soft and black material, totally different from diamond, but also extremely important in our days society and let’s not forget that carbon is the key element for life and the 4th most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen, helium and oxygen.
We all heard that diamond is the hardest material known, but it is also the material that has the highest heat transfer rate ( it lets transfer heat very easily ), it is the atomic densest ( it has the highest number of atoms compared to its volume ), it has an extremely low thermal expansion coefficient ( it does change very little its volume when heated or cooled ) , the best resistance to thermal shock ( it does not crack when heated or cooled ), it has the highest sound speed propagation, it is extremely transparent to visible, infrared and ultraviolet radiation, it is resistant to all acids and it can become an excellent semiconductor. These proprieties make it versatile in the world of mechanics, optoelectronics, biotechnology and quantum mechanics, but its use is limited by the extremely high costs.
