Application of the dusty plasma method for preparation of diamond ceramics

• We coated 3–7 μm-sized diamond particles with cobalt nanolayers using dusty plasma.
• We sintered the fine-grained diamond compacts with low cobalt content.
• The compacts show high sonic wave propagation velocity and elastic moduli values.

Diamond particles 3–7 μm in size sustained in plasma in a high-dispersion state were coated with cobalt by magnetron sputtering. The relative concentration of cobalt in obtained powders was 2–3 mass. %. Sintering the diamond powders with the cobalt coating under the pressure of 8 GPa and the temperatures of 2000–2100 K resulted in the production of homogeneous specimens having the density of 3.6 ± 0.1 g cm− 3. The produced diamond compacts demonstrated high values of the ultrasonic wave propagation velocity and elastic moduli.