Diamonds may be timeless, but today, they’re also timely. On International Diamond Day, IBM is proud to shine a light on TrustChainTM, a project with IBM Blockchain that is helping to trace the provenance of diamonds used in engagement rings. TrustChain’s goal is to instill trust in the origin and ethical sourcing of jewelry—a mission we can all celebrate.
Do you know the story behind your ring? TrustChain, an initiative built on the IBM Blockchain Platform, is helping trace the provenance of diamonds and precious metals used in engagement rings. By tracking components of engagement rings on a blockchain, gold and diamond industry leaders are working to strengthen the backbone of ethical labor practices and consumer trust in the supply chain. TrustChain is initially tracking six styles of diamond and gold engagement rings, so when it comes to supporting ethically-sourced jewelry, you now have the power to say “I do.”
A method that reduces friction between two surfaces to almost zero on macroscopic scales has been demonstrated by US researchers. The phenomenon, which was discovered accidentally, works by combining nanodiamonds with sheets of graphene, which curl around the nanodiamonds to form ‘nanoscrolls’ that lubricate the two surfaces. As friction wastes so much energy in all sorts of mechanical devices this discovery has huge potential to save both energy and money.
Diamonds aren’t just a girl’s best friend—they’re also crucial components for hard-wearing industrial components, such as the drill bits used to access oil and gas deposits underground. But a cost-efficient method to find other suitable materials to do the job is on the way.
Diamond is one of the only materials hard and tough enough for the job of constant grinding without significant wear, but as any imminent proposee knows, diamonds are pricey. High costs drive the search for new hard and superhard materials. However, the experimental trial-and-error search is itself expensive.
A simple and reliable way to predict new material properties is needed to facilitate modern technology development. Using a computational algorithm, Russian theorists have published just such a predictive tool in the Journal of Applied Physics, from AIP Publishing.
“Our study outlines a picture that can guide experimentalists, showing them the direction to search for new hard materials,” said the study’s first author Alexander Kvashnin, from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Graphene Roll-Ups Make Friction Disappear, Could Revolutionize Machine Engineering
Chalk another amazing ability up for the supermaterial graphene. It seems the atom-thick sheets of linked carbon atoms can virtually eliminate friction.
The simulation above depicts the graphene-lubricant discovery–blue graphene sheets roll up to encase gold nanodiamonds as a surface of black diamond-like carbon slides over. Once the graphene wraps into so-called nanoscrolls around the nanodiamonds, the sheets make friction disappear.
“The nanoscrolls combat friction in very much the same way that ball bearings do by creating separation between surfaces,” said Argonne National Lab researcher Sanket Deshmukh. Learn more and see photos below.
Nano-sized diamonds with certain defects are assetsfor people who study light.
Marko Loncar, an NSF-funded electrical engineer at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, creates tiny structures out of diamonds and other elements to manipulate how light and matter interact on the nanoscale.
For instance, Loncar, who is part of the Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Team, uses diamond posts in a silver substrate as the scalable platform to enhance single photon emission by nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond.
Nitrogen vacancy centers are defects formed in diamonds that allow for the precise manipulation of absorbed photons and emitted light.
You may not want a flawed diamond on your finger, but it’s the defect that makes things like quantum computing possible.
Argonne scientists used Mira to identify and improve a new mechanism for eliminating friction, which fed into the development of a hybrid material that exhibited superlubricity at the macroscale for the first time. Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) researchers helped enable the groundbreaking simulations by overcoming a performance bottleneck that doubled the speed of the team’s code.
While reviewing the simulation results of a promising new lubricant material, Argonne researcher Sanket Deshmukh stumbled upon a phenomenon that had never been observed before.
“I remember Sanket calling me and saying ‘you have got to come over here and see this. I want to show you something really cool,’” said Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, Argonne computational nanoscientist, who led the simulation work at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
They were amazed by what the computer simulations revealed. When the lubricant materials–graphene and diamond-like carbon (DLC)–slid against each other, the graphene began rolling up to form hollow cylindrical “scrolls” that helped to practically eliminate friction. These so-called nanoscrolls represented a completely new mechanism for superlubricity, a state in which friction essentially disappears.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use tiny diamonds and graphene to give friction the slip, creating a new material combination that demonstrates the rare phenomenon of “superlubricity.” From left, researchers Ani Sumant, Ali Erdemir, Su…
New experiments demonstrate the potential for diamond as a material for spintronics
Conventional electronics rely on controlling electric charge. Recently, researchers have been exploring the potential for a new technology, called spintronics, that relies on detecting and controlling a particle’s spin. This technology could lead to new types of more efficient and powerful devices.
In a paper published in Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, researchers measured how strongly a charge carrier’s spin interacts with a magnetic field in diamond. This crucial property shows diamond as a promising material for spintronic devices.
Diamond is attractive because it would be easier to process and fabricate into spintronic devices than typical semiconductor materials, said Golrokh Akhgar, a physicist at La Trobe University in Australia. Conventional quantum devices are based on multiple thin layers of semiconductors, which require an elaborate fabrication process in an ultrahigh vacuum.
“Diamond is normally an extremely good insulator,” Akhgar said. But, when exposed to hydrogen plasma, the diamond incorporates hydrogen atoms into its surface. When a hydrogenated diamond is introduced to moist air, it becomes electrically conductive because a thin layer of water forms on its surface, pulling electrons from the diamond. The missing electrons at the diamond surface behave like positively charged particles, called holes, making the surface conductive.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have found a way to use tiny diamonds and graphene to give friction the slip, creating a new material combination that demonstrates the rare phenomenon of “superlubricity.”
Led by nanoscientist Ani Sumant of Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and Argonne Distinguished Fellow Ali Erdemir of Argonne’s Energy Systems Division, the five-person Argonne team combined diamond nanoparticles, small patches of graphene – a two-dimensional single-sheet form of pure carbon – and a diamond-like carbon material to create superlubricity, a highly-desirable property in which friction drops to near zero.
According to Erdemir, as the graphene patches and diamond particles rub up against a large diamond-like carbon surface, the graphene rolls itself around the diamond particle, creating something that looks like a ball bearing on the nanoscopic level. “The interaction between the graphene and the diamond-like carbon is essential for creating the ‘superlubricity’ effect,” he said. “The two materials depend on each other.”
I was watching a video essay on Steven Universe, when the fact that White knew Pink was Rose then Steven, that she wasn’t dead, and even that he’s had dreams of her hit me like a truck cuz I hadn’t fully realized that! And now I’m wondering.
What would’ve happened if Blue and Yellow hadn’t decided to destroy the Earth during Steven’s lifetime? What if he grew, lived and died the life cycle he wanted with no outside gem interference. And suddenly, White could not feel Pink’s gem because she, Rose, Pink, Steven, was gone?
On the one hand, she might brush it off as ‘the rowdy little girl I know probably shattered doing something foolish.’ And move on with her society that already went on without her (though the other two Diamonds still grieve).
But the angst lover in me wants to imagine White stopping all functions, eyes growing wide and mouth hanging open the second she realizes Pink’s presence has disappeared. She’s gone. Her Starlight is gone. She had thought- she’d come back one day. Once all her follies finally ended and she grew up. She should have. But she’s. Gone.
Imagine a White Diamond struggling with grief. Trying to keep going the facade that she’s perfect and everything is perfect and she can move on. But there are times she falters, and running homework with such a tight grip, it’s easy for everyone to see something is wrong. Blue and Yellow keep trying to check up on her but shes locked herself tightly and discourages them from visiting.
So she’ll be alone with the knowledge of the true fate of Pink.
What can she do next? What will she do? She’s seen how Blue and Yellow have grieved and called them pathetic. What about her?
Truthfully, this could go a number of ways. One ending would be Yellow and Blue disobeying, seeing her in a fit of emotions, and this being like the moment where White realizes she has imperfections too. That she’s not perfect. And she can grow from this. I don’t know if she’d tell them about Pink. Maybe she would and it could spark… damn. This could break them, to have to grieve Pink two times. Or maybe she keeps it to herself, knowing this would hurt. She doesn’t want to break them further.
Another possibility could be her tightening her grip to a frightening degree. Homeworld is already bad, but fear of this happening again could lead White to simply keep control over Blue and Yellow. Then maybe more. Her paranoia takes over as slowly. She’ll not only be in charge of everyone, but also, trully becomeeveryone.
