BURLINGTON, Ontario - Making diamond from carbon dioxide (CO2) sounds impossible, but EnviroDiamond Technologies (ETI) has succeeded. Daren Swanson, president of ETI, is having a blast reviewing recent lab results. After banging away for three years, he has proven that CO2 can indeed be detonated to produce microscopic diamond dust.
Dubbed "cold detonation physics" or CDP, the technology consists of mixing dry ice, which is frozen CO2, with other ingredients to make an explosive. This minus 78.5°C mixture is packed into a very thick steel pipe and then detonated. Byproduct analysis from Queen's University clearly shows that ETI's technology produces very small diamond from CO2 referred to as nanodiamond.
Fine diamond material is used for applications ranging from coating tools and drill bits to polishing and delivering chemotherapy drugs into the body. Diamond from CO2 may prove to be the least expensive way to make synthetic diamond dust and certainly the most environmentally friendly.
CO2 can now be used to make diamond and an explosive with potential use in mining that could actually save lives. The explosive's low temperature of detonation is ideal for mines hampered with the risk of methane or coal dust explosions.
The next step this summer and fall is to develop both the mining and diamond facets of CDP with strategic partners.
The ETI website is at www.EnviroDiamond.com.
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