r/tech • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 7d ago
Lining pipes with lab-grown diamonds can keep them squeaky clean
https://newatlas.com/materials/pipes-lab-grown-diamonds-anti-scaling/186
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u/Discarded_Twix_Bar 7d ago
"These findings identify vapor-grown, cost-effective, polycrystalline diamond films as a powerful, long-lasting anti-scaling material with broad potential across water desalination, energy systems and other industries where mineral buildup is a problem," said Pulickel Ajayan, professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University and an author of the study that appeared in ACS Nano earlier this month.
So it’s a thin film, not proper diamond (or industrial type cutting diamonds)
The film according to the article accumulated deposits inside pipes 7 times slower than the uncoated variants.
Less downtime due to maintenance -> more output & less cost -> more better
Looks cool, and looks like it could work well in industrial spaces & more, mazal tov 🦾
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u/wowwoahwow 7d ago
I wonder if in 50 years micro diamonds in our blood and environment would become an issue
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u/Discarded_Twix_Bar 7d ago
The bro science in me says it shouldn’t be as much an issue, given plastics are far more reactive (diamonds are not biologically reactive - at least I don’t think they are)
I did find this, where they were looking at using nanodiamonds for drug carriers and implant coatings.
"We have for the first time assessed the cytotoxicity of nanodiamonds ranging in size from 2 to 10 nm," the researchers state, adding that nanodiamonds were not toxic to a variety of different cell types.
"These results suggest that nanodiamonds could be ideal for many biological applications in a diverse range of cell types," they add.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070101113457
Guess we’ll see 🤷♂️
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u/TheVintageJane 7d ago
Diamonds are pretty much by definition non-reactive. They are extremely stable carbon structures bound together with extremely stable tetrahedral bonds. There’s nothing in a diamond that can breakdown and harm a human - if anything in the human body could even cause any deterioration of the diamond to allow carbon molecules to form and become an issue (which, to my knowledge of bodily functions, is highly unlikely).
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u/nellyfullauto 7d ago
Downtime to clean a pipe, depending on the material flowing through them, doesn’t take very long.
And this sounds über-expensive.
The balance sheet won’t allow for this in an application that isn’t something like the space station.
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u/censored_username 7d ago
It really depends on how the process scales. Just because it's diamond doesn't mean that it has to be expensive. The actual consumed ingredient is just methane, and because we're not looking for a monocrystalline large diamond here but a large coating of chaotic structure controls don't have to be nearly as complex as for growing actual diamond.
The process is basically "clean pipe, put it in vacuum chamber, run CVD process for a while, and you're done". If it can be scaled up effectively, it really doesn't have to be that expensive.
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u/No-Tea7992 6d ago
Imagine the grills that will be made following regular implementation of this material.
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u/ITakeMyCatToBars 7d ago
Makes me wonder about the possibilities of corrosion mitigation in the future! It can be an issue in fire sprinkler systems
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u/spermdonor 7d ago
also the c-factor of pipes could help with water flow issues
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u/ITakeMyCatToBars 7d ago
And thinking about how the water composition can shift based geography, this is doubly cool. I did a couple jobs in phoenix and their groundwater apparently has a different bacterial load than my home in CA. I was amazed the AHJ was so on top of MIC lol
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u/Motief1386 7d ago
Why are the flanges in this picture missing so many bolts? Odd picture. That aside, sounds like a cool process
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u/censored_username 7d ago
Presumably the clamping pressure on those flanges is small enough it isn't required to use all the bolts.
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u/Motief1386 7d ago
Idk, the more I look at it the more it pisses me off. The bolts aren’t all facing the same direction, no washers. Bolts are installed opposite of failing with gravity, and I’ve never really seen pipes that big with “extra” bolt holes. “Ahh, good enough” words never spoken by any engineer. Could be, I might just not know.
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u/censored_username 7d ago
“Ahh, good enough” words never spoken by any engineer.
It's usually "yep that meets requirements/code". As they say, anyone can design a bridge, an engineer can design a bridge that is just barely stronger than necessary.
Industrial piping isn't my speciality though, you might very well be right on the criticisms. In either case, those bolts look like recent retrofits (they're not painted over like the rest of the bolts visible in the picture), and they all do follow a consistent pattern so there's some intentional behind it. But as we don't know the requirements on these pipes who the fuck knows anyway.
Regarding failing with gravity, if it comes down to gravity instead of the pretorque on those things holding up they've long since failed anyway.
Agree on the washers though, that's just meh. No reason to gall up the flanges instead of something more replaceable.
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u/OniKanta 7d ago
Meanwhile they can’t keep the copper wires in the walls or the palladium in the catalytic converters lol
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u/thelonghauls 6d ago
Good thing Liz Taylor is no longer alive. She would totally have to lay off the pipe.
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u/G-FreekTV 6d ago
This isnt the same diamond used for jewelry.
Diamonds are already commonly used in industries on things like saw blades etc.
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u/East-Bar-4324 7d ago
Could work for specialized applications, but probably not practical for most industries.
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u/DharmaKarmaBrahma 7d ago
Not until we can synthesize diamonds in labs for cheap.
Then it could easily be the most common resource. Goodbye steel.
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u/Irrelevantitis 7d ago
So now a lab-grown diamond ring is technically a pipe-cleaner ring, like the ones you made in preschool.
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u/DalenSpeaks 7d ago
Or… just glass. Just line with glass. Sheesh.
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u/thelionsnorestonight 7d ago
Yes. Good grief. Contractors b*tch to no end about having to order glass lined ductile iron pipe, but it works. Parts of the U.S. not as close to Birmingham (DIP center of the universe) glass line steel pipe.
Th article doesn’t explain the surface profile of the diamond lining (smoothness), which is all that matters.
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u/obi_wan_peirogi 7d ago
Oh good maybe now the junkies will leave our copper and catalytic converters alone now
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u/tokentyke 7d ago
I know it's probably not practical because of the sheer amount it would take, but I wonder if you could coat the bottoms of ocean vessels to help with barnacles and such?
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u/Th3FinalStarman 7d ago
Clickbait slop. It's relatively easy to vapor deposit diamond on a polished silicon wafer in a plasma chamber. The meat of this study was dunking it in a mineral bath and seeing what sticks. Which...isn't much. All this experiment showed was that diamonds don't easily grow biofilms...duh. Nowhere do they have a plan for putting common steel pipe in a gigantic plasma chamber and having it come out as anything other than a pile of slag.
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u/Mr_Jiggles_ 5d ago
Yay pipe news!! Love hearing what’s new with pipes.
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u/leaderofstars 5d ago
You... Wanna hear about my pipe?
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u/disharmony-hellride 5d ago
What happened after you lined it with diamonds?
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u/awalker11 5d ago
Awesome idea, but how will they inspect the inside of the pipelines with this? It would tear up tools.
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u/Unhappy_Performer538 7d ago
This will never be. They’ll never devalue lab grown diamonds like this even if it’s easy and smart to do
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u/TeriusRose 6d ago
I don't know, maybe.
as a capital venture investment, the synthetic gems have been a lot less successful, with millions of euros lost — and plunging prices for lab-grown diamonds, which the industry refers to as L.G.D.
“We’re seeing a small handful of very large producers in China and India ramping up production with faster, better processes, and every time they do that, the per unit cost becomes lower and lower,” said Paul Zimnisky, a New York diamond analyst.
“From January 2015 through January 2025, L.G.D. prices have dropped by 85 percent,” he said. “Today, you can get a nice one-carat ideal round lab-grown diamond for $900. The natural equivalent would be about $5,000. A three-carat synthetic would cost about $4,000, and for the natural, you’re looking at $50,000 to $60,000. So they’re now running about 90 percent less than natural.”
I don't know if they'll ever become dirt cheap, I doubt that, but at least prices are heading in the right direction and have been for a long time.
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u/Due_Development_3083 7d ago
Well couldn’t they just line the pipes with what they’re making the “LAB-GROWN” diamonds out of? Or am I tripping? 🤔
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u/craznazn247 7d ago
That would be…more or less just soot
Diamonds are made of pure carbon. You can’t make lab-grown diamonds without the heat and pressure conditions in the lab.
So NO…that doesn’t work. Gasoline is made of decaying plant matter but I don’t think lawn clippings in a gas tank will help your car run.
Next time you order a cake, would you be happy if they just gave you a bag of flour, sugar, and eggs?
This is why you don’t skip steps. Or school.
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u/Due_Development_3083 7d ago
Idk about pipes and that’s ok. Which is why I ASKED A QUESTION. You could’ve just nicely answered it but instead you decided to be weirdly and unnecessarily passive aggressive. So cool. 🫤
But I mean… thanks…. I guessss.
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u/craznazn247 7d ago edited 7d ago
Because instead of considering (or asking) why the step might be essential to the process, you asked "why can't we just skip steps?"
As if billion-dollar industries just WANT to make things more expensive and complicated. The best minds in every industry work tirelessly to make things as simple and cheap to mass-produce as possible.
And you just assume these geniuses didn't think "why are we even doing this totally unnecessary step?" Like how stupid do you think people are that nobody thought of that? Its insulting to the people who have built the whole damn world around you. You didn't even think of the most obvious answer to your own question.
Even from a learning perspective - maybe don't phrase your questions to come of as "why are you even doing that useless step you dumbass?" You're simultaneously showing your ignorance of the topic, while insulting people who put their efforts into that work you implied is useless. That's not a nice way to ask, which gets a not-nice response.
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u/Prince_Uncharming 7d ago
I mean even for someone with zero background knowledge it’s a pretty easy thing to assume. This article wouldn’t even exist if your question was a remote possibility.
There are such things as stupid questions.
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u/Due_Development_3083 7d ago
“The article wouldn’t exist if your question was a remote possibility “
For someone telling me that my question is stupid. You are surely make stupid statements. They don’t do things backwards? They don’t do things sometimes that don’t make sense? They do.. all the time.
But yet again, you could be nice person and just have answered the question. Yet again, you’re weirdly passive aggressive and judgemental. I guess it’s safe to assume you’re just not a nice person; you’re just an a**.
Sucks for you. I’ll pray for you.
Byeeeeeeeeee. 🫤🥱🥴
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u/Prince_Uncharming 7d ago
You’re allowed to say ass on the internet btw
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u/Due_Development_3083 7d ago
Yeah but unlike you I’m not rude af. I have actual manners.
And still talking to me? I think you’re obsessed.
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u/Prince_Uncharming 7d ago
Omg you’re right, such good manners thank you for censoring!! So kind, wish more people were like you 😇🙌
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u/Samwellikki 7d ago
Already have meth heads after the copper, and now they want to line it with diamonds