Spontaneous growth of diamond from MnNi solvent-catalyst using opposed anvil-type high-pressure apparatus

• Using an opposed anvil-type high-pressure apparatus in growth of diamond.
• Using alternating sequence of Mn47Ni53 solvent-catalyst and graphite layers.
• Obtained diamond were of 0.2–0.5 mm in size with well-shaped cubo-structured morphology.

In this paper an overview of the application of opposed anvil-type high-pressure and high-temperature apparatus for spontaneous growth of diamond crystals by solvent-catalyst technique is presented. The process makes use of a molten Mn47Ni53 catalyst to initiate the graphite–diamond transformation reaction. The pressure and temperature requirements to obtain reproducible spontaneous diamond crystallization were around 52.5–54 kbar and 1270–1320 °C. The crystals had well-shaped cubo-structured morphology with the {100} and {111} faces and grain sizes of 0.2–0.5 mm. This work can stimulate future experimental exploration of spontaneous diamond crystallization by using other solvent-catalyst metals.

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