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Synthetic Diamonds made from Tequila
Reforma Ciudad de M้xico
Fine high-resistance layers prove at the UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) that tequila is literally, a diamond in the rough.
 A group of UNAM physicists is developing synthetic diamonds from tequila, these are capable of competing with naturally originated diamonds and silicon when used as thin films in electronic devices or as materials for use under high temperatures.
In UNAM’s Thin film Laboratory for Applied Physics and Advanced Technology (CFATA), located in Juriquilla, Querétaro, physics doctorate Luis Miguel Apátiga Castro and his colleagues re-launched the adventure proposed to them by emeritus professor Fernando Alba Andrade back in 1995, who first flirted with the idea of obtaining thin film diamonds from hydrocarbon gases whose molecules are formed by carbon and hydrogen atoms.
“The carbon atoms contained in these gases are the prime material for the formation of nanometric-size diamond crystals (in the orders of thousandths of a millimeter) at temperatures that go from 600ºC to 900ºC. That is why we launched this project at CFATA”, explains Apátiga.
To achieve this, the physicist and his collaborators — among them doctorate student Javier Morales, from Nuevo León’s Autonomous University, and CFATA director Víctor Manuel Castaño— rehearsed in the lab with some precursors containing the “prime material” of diamonds.
"We first obtained diamonds from organic solutions like acetone, ethanol and methanol, composites that, like hydrocarbon gases, contain atoms of carbon and hydrogen".
They discovered that upon diluting ethanol in water to form a compound of 40 percent ethanol and 60 percent water, good quality diamond films are obtained.
 Apátiga was surprised by the similarity of the proportion of ethanol and water being used to that of tequila and wondered if the beverage could be used as a precursor for obtaining diamonds.
"Tequila is basically formed by ethanol and water as well as other compounds of chemical and organic origin formed during the fermentation and distillation process. To dissipate any doubts, one morning on the way to the lab I bought a pocket-size bottle of cheap white tequila and we did some tests. We were in doubt over whether the great amount of chemicals present in tequila, other than water and ethanol, would contaminate or obstruct the process, it turned out to be not so. The results were amazing, same as with the ethanol and water compound, we obtained almost spherical shaped diamonds of nanometric size. There is no doubt; tequila has the exact proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms necessary to form diamonds”.
Designing their own equipment
With those results, the researchers designed a device through which the drink goes into the three states of matter: it is introduced as liquid tequila, then heated to 280ºC thus transformed into a gaseous compound, it is then put through a reaction chamber at 800ºC that breaks down the molecular structure of its components which reacts forming solid diamond crystals.
The equipment, called MOCVD (metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy), was designed at CFATA though it was built and installed by expert physicists in such technology, from Vilnius University in Lithuania.
"In October 2004 a group of Lithuanian physicists came to Querétaro, they improved our design and assembled the device in one week.
In the process, the water’s hydrogen and oxygen at high temperatures remove all carbon impurities alien to the diamond, such as graphite. They were therefore used as “cleansers” to obtain only diamonds.
 The crystals fall into small stainless steel or silicon trays, where they accumulate forming a uniform and thin film which is left to cool. The diamond film is very hard and heat resistant. It is useful as an electrical insulator, heat conductor at high temperatures and quite sensible to ultraviolet light.
"Such properties make the diamond layers useful as coating for cutting tools, as high-power semiconductors, radiation detectors and as an optical-electronic device, explains Apátiga, who is carrying out the process with various tequilas.
“We are testing with better quality white, reposado and aged tequilas. This project’s phase will be completed by the end of the year. Between 2009 and 2011 we could scale the experiment to pilot phase before we embark on an industrial scale” he estimates.
Methanol and acetone tests
In forthcoming research, Miguel Apátiga and his colleagues will research diamond precursors from methanol alone and from a mix of acetone and water.
"As happens with tequila, from these we can also obtain hydrogen and carbon atoms".
In another phase they will work on “doped” diamonds, meaning layers supplemented with impurities to turn them into semiconductor materials to widen their range of uses. Towards 2011, the physicists could enter the industrial scale, what would be then be needed would be the interest of a tequila-producing industrial group seeking to widen the possibilities of the traditional beverage turned into a high-resistance material. Email to a friend
Source: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/
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