Admagistr
Hazard to Others
Posts: 350
Registered: 4-11-2021
Location: Central Europe
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Mood: The dreaming alchemist
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SiC synthesis in the form of beautiful crystals, not carborundum.
Popular articles are written about the possibility of synthesizing tiny diamond crystals for the amateurs, and pretty much anyone who makes a big
effort to get a bottle of oxygen, for example, and acetylene can make a daunting attempt. But I couldn't find a similary article anywhere about
SiC-Moissanite crystal synthesis. Yet the Moissanit has only slightly less hardness = 9.5 by Mohse than the diamond, and it is just as beautiful, if
not prettier! My idea is to make it out of elements of silicon and carbon and use a suitable mineralizer in which both carbon and silicon dissolve
simultaneously. Could be some metal... Has anyone tried? And did anyone find an interesting article on how this could be done specifically?
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khlor
Hazard to Self
Posts: 82
Registered: 4-1-2014
Location: Who knows, really...
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Mood: No Mood
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That's a tall order, I myself tried using a butane torch, some sand and charcoal about two years ago, I guess I don't need to tell that I failed
miserably... however, I heard stories and saw videos about people who managed with makeshift arc furnaces(those made with blocks and microwave
transformers) now, to form crystals... I never seen anything like that, however, I'd look for hydrothermal process or something called plasma vapor
deposition, even making ruby alone is quite hard, and it is well documented on the amateur/hobby chemistry community, however, my bet would be on the
plasma thing, I guess they do it like diamond, sublimation and then surface deposition to grow a crystal, though, you still need a seed, I guess...
I'm not a specialist, just saw this thread and remembered about some crazy stuff from the past.
"NOOOOOO!!! The mixture is all WROOOOOOONG!"
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