Several companies are offering a service to turn ashes of human remains into diamonds.
Does anyone know any details about the chemical aspects of the process?
I have no idea, but suspect that the ashes are composed mostly of phosphates and oxides. Where does the carbon hide? Any carbonate would have decomposed at the creation temperature. Or does the cremation chamber has such a high COX2COX2 partial pressure that COX2COX2 from burners is captured by the CaO?
How is the carbon then extracted?
Also, diamond is normally made out of graphite, which agrees with a statement on the LifeGem website.
Let's assume they can squeeze out a little COX2 by heating the ashes in an oxygen stream. Then they concentrate the COX2 on a molecular sieve, use the Sabatier reaction to create CHX4 which they decompose on a hot metal wire. Then they dissolve that in acid and get a little bit of powder rich in sp2 bonds and similar to graphite. Could one make diamonds out of that?
On the other hand, the page mentioned above states that they first extract the carbon and then turn it into graphite. How do you turn a few mg of fine carbon powder into graphite?
