By Dorothy
In our modern society, diamonds have become a seemingly ubiquitous commodity in our daily lives, in fields of fashion, economy, automotive industries and so much more.
Diamond is a stable allotrope of pure carbon, formed 100 miles beneath the Earth’s crust, in the lithosphere. Often considered as the strongest naturally occurring substance, it scores a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale (King, n.d.), renowned as a material which possess superlative physical qualities, chemical, and biological properties. It is rare, almost completely inert, undissolvable in water, and it has the highest melting point of any known substances. However, how are these properties aroused from atomic interactions?
Diamonds have an exceptionally rigid network of carbon atoms, held together by very strong covalent bonds that makes it chemically inert. As it does not conduct electricity, the electrons must not be free to move around within a diamond. Each carbon atom is surrounded by four other carbon atoms situated at equal distances and angles. It adopts a tetrahedral configuration, a mixture of s and 3p orbitals, which uniform all over the structure of diamond, where carbon atoms interact with others to form a bond moved as far as possible to minimize repulsions. The structural arrangement is what gives diamond a unique hardness, resistance to compression, strength and extensive durability, yielding one of the versatile substances known (“Carbon”, 2012).
These characteristics of diamond enable it to be utilized for multiple purposes, and have a wide spectrum of applications in modern society. The most common uses for diamonds outside of fine jewelry are for industrial applications.
( You may have heard of synthetic diamonds manufacturingas synthetic diamond is hard to make, expensive equipment, people stick to mining, but mining is bad, poor working circumstances, child labour, physical, sexual abuse)allowing broad usage of diamond saws and drills0 (“Impacts”, n.d.)
As a conclusion, diamonds are frequently recognized for their exquisite features, an indicator of wealth and long-lasting love, which also, on the other hand, enhances efficiency for industrial manufacturers, automotive, mining, military, and many other fields. However, behind these evident benefits, diamonds also brings about societal difficulties, such as poor working circumstances, child labour, transmission of diseases owing to inadequate sanitation, and many more. (Ayers, 2016) It is entirely dependent on programmes introduced to mitigate strain on diamond mines, diamond production industries, as well as most crucially, to progressively reduce the demand for diamonds.
Everytime you see a diamond wedding ring, or perhaps a window embedded with diamonds, remind yourself and be grateful for every carat of diamond produced, because they are all manufactured in a process requiring hardships and appalling labour forces. I believe behind every sparkling, glimmering surface of a diamond, there is often a terrible price to pay.
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