In this paper,we investigate diamond crystallization in Fe-Ni-C with an aluminum additive and the capability of aluminum for converting graphite to diamond in a series of experiments at 4.9-5.5 GPa and 1240-1500°C.Our experimental results show that the growth habits of diamond crystal have been significantly influenced by the addition of aluminum as a catalyst.The crystal color changes from yellow to nearly colorless.The morphology of the synthesized diamond crystals gradually changes from cubic-octahedron to octahedron in the Fe-Ni-C systems with increasing aluminum additive.The lowest synthesis conditions fell first and then rose with increasing aluminum.We found a suitable addition of aluminum is very effective in lowering the synthesis conditions while an excessive aluminum additive may have a suppressive effect on the diamond nucleation.
Large diamond crystals were successfully synthesized by a FeNi-C system using the temperature gradient method under high-pressure high-temperature conditions. The assembly of the growth cell was improved and the growth process of diamond was investigated. Effects of the symmetry of the carbon convection field around the growing diamond crystal were investigated systematically by adjusting the position of the seed crystal in the melted catalyst/solvent. The results indicate that the morphologies and metal inclusion distributions of the synthetic diamond crystals vary obviously in both symmetric and non-symmetric carbon convection fields with temperature. Moreover, the finite element method was applied to analyze the carbon convection mode of the melted catalyst/solvent around the diamond crystal. This work is helpful for understanding the growth mechanism of diamond.
Samarium-filled skutterudites SmxCo4Sb12(x=0.5,1.0) skutterudite thermoelectric(TE) materials with enhanced power factor were prepared by high-pressure and high-temperature(HPHT) technique.The microstructure properties were characterized with X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy.The electrical resistivities and Seebeck coefficients of those samples were measured in the temperature range of 300-723 K,and the samples of SmxCo4Sb12 showed n-type conduction.The Seebeck coefficient in absolute value of SmxCo4Sb12 increased with an increase of temperature and decreased with an increase of x.Among all the samples,Sm0.5Co4Sb12 showed the highest power factor of 2.5×10-3 W/m/K2 at 665 K.The results indicated that HPHT combined with samarium filling is an effective way to enhance the thermoelectric properties for skutterudite compounds.
Polycrystalline diamond compacts (PDC) were synthesized using diamond powder of average crystal size 3-20 μm by the Ni 70 Mn 25 Co 5 alloy infiltration technique at high temperature and high pressure (HPHT).The surface residual stress of polycrystalline diamond (PCD) layer was measured using micro-Raman spectroscopy with hydrostatic stress model and X-ray diffraction (XRD).Measurements of the stress levels of PCDs show that the residual compressive stresses range from 0.12 to 0.22 GPa,which increase with the crystal size of diamond.Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of initial diamond grains and PCD cross-section.The results indicate that PCD has a dense and interlaced microstructure with diamond-diamond (D-D) direct bonding.And the smaller the crystal size of diamond,the better the growth of diamond direct bonding and the smaller the binder metal between diamond boundaries will be.
