Making Diamond Based Black Powder - Will it Burn?

Testing if the Diamond allotrope of carbon can make viable black powder.
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[@JoshStLouis314]

The diamond powder is probably too thermally conductive to make a good black powder. Any hot spot loses its heat to the surrounding pile.

[@jmpattillo]

Aren’t the carbon atoms also bound into a much stronger crystal matrix?

[@michaelrogers3857]

@@jmpattillo yes

[@RichardCranium321]

Could've put bigger diamonds into the tumbler as a medium.... but that may get kind of expensive

[@sealpiercing8476]

Not that expensive. Small uncut diamonds are fairly cheap.

[@Amipotsophspond]

diamonds are really vastly harder(ability to scratch something else) then anything else, the Mohs Hardness Scale is not equal units, Diamonds that are 10 on Mohs but are 1500 on absolute hardness, sapphire(sandpaper) are 9 on Mohs but are 400 on absolute hardness, Quartz(actual sand) a 7 on Mohs is a 100 in absolute hardness. so it will erode what ever you are tumbling most quickly, and as it erodes it will be diluting the diamond dust medium, lowering the probability the workpiece interacts with diamond dust and raising the probability the workpiece interacts with dust of workpiece, net effect of slowing down the rate it gets eroded at. so you can clean the diamond dust by finding a way to remove the dust made of workpiece. such as collecting dust of workpiece with a magnet or dissolving the fine dust of workpiece in solvent washing diamond dust. so you can reuse 1 time buy of diamond dust, making it as cheap as solvent or magnet to run with exception of diamond dust erodes diamond dust making it a more fine grit over time. smaller grits make recovery harder so it's not practically a forever 1 time buy. still it is less expensive over time.

[@spacehitchhiker4264]

It probably has a really high activation energy. Also the diamonds are wicking heat away from the combustion site very quickly.

[@pturcanu]

Good point about the hardness of diamond grit! By the same logic though, I'm wondering if you've abraded some of the tumbler container into your mixture. If it's plastic, it probably served as fuel. Is that what we see burning instead of diamond? And I'm thinking you could use lump sulfur as a medium?

[@ElementalMaker]

I think given the rubbery nature of the tumbler barrel, it probably has very minimal if any erosion. Rubber holds up quite well in that kind of environment

[@zachaliles]

@@ElementalMaker I've replaced a few transmission output shafts because the seal wore into the hardened steel shaft. My thought on it is the rubber is being embedded with grit, as in dirt and mud, and basically lapping the shaft as it spins. So if anything the diamond would probably be embedded in the rubber barrel.

[@Slide100]

Good to see you back brother! I made the biltong! Spectacular, and "normal" jerky just won't do any more. :-) Thanks for the inspiration.

[@barbarapiercy4312]

I used to be in the gem business. Most people don’t realize that most of the diamonds mined are only commercial grade. Very little is actually gem quality. Lapidary uses diamond powder. After all, only diamonds can polish diamonds. Or Conundrum for that matter. Love the channel. Keep the experiments going but, stay safe.😊

[@crazy_mind-ox8if]

This brings a whole new meaning to the verse "Shine bright like a diamond"

[@Ultrazaubererger]

Two things I think would be worth trying: 1. put it in a bowl and light it. The molten drops might feed on the powder beneath and make a cool effect. 2. Put it in a tube (open ended like a rocked engine) and start it with regular black powder. I feel like it just needs a kick and/or pressure to start.

[@fourkings7897]

Hey what's going on guys, welcome back to the Elementalmaker 😁

[@tannervoss1669]

Few things get me more jazzzed up than new EM videos. Thanks!

[@dcallan812]

It looks cool to heat a diamond and drop it into liquid oxygen. The diamond just skips about on the surface burning. NileRed did it once (I think) Great video 2x 👍

[@TheExplosiveGuy]

I love that diamond powder, it's an amazing abrasive for polishing knives and glass, I get 30,000 grit and make a paste with water then rub it into smooth-sanded tongue depressors, the pores in the wood holds the diamond powder pretty well. I use it as the final stage of sharpening, once the knife can cut my arm hair I start polishing with the stick until it can split a hair down the middle. I never considered using diamond powder in a pyrotechnic mix, that's an interesting experiment. I wonder if a smaller grit size would help, I think they make up to 200,000 grit powder (yep, they do, just checked), that might work. Also maybe try some ceramic ball bearings to mill it, though I personally think you'd still be OK using lead ball.

[@stefanoconti4426]

So glad to see you back!!

[@BeeHolding]

fire detector "sing us the song of it's people" made my day thank you

[@constantprayerwarrior]

I'm so glad to see another video from you

[@platima]

Absolutely ripper. Glad you're back!

[@pecnorthernvalley4892]

Welcome back indeed!

[@markcurtis4465]

It'd be interesting to see if compression or confined spaces affects that compound. Like how regular fuses burn way faster in a tube than in open air.

[@MultigrainKevinOs]

Hey buddy, glad to see some fresh and fascinating content! That was a pretty neat experiment anyway. Thanks for giving it a spin and sharing!

[@johnkoury1116]

Hey Brother glad to see you are still on here. I am a PhD chemical engineer and I absolutely love chemistry.My PhD is in Organo-metal transiton catalysts.Right now my specialty consulting is for Thermite welding process such as in the joining of railroad tracks. I went to Pharmacy school first and then kept right on going. we should get together sometime.....just moved back to Pennsylvania from Florida but I really want to go back to the warm weather...

[@BenjaminMaggi]

You could have click baited YT with a title like "the most expensive black powder" instead you choose not to, I appreciate you for keeping it real ! Love your channel great content !

[@custos3249]

Apart from the sparks, pretty expected. Now get in touch with Thought Emporium and try straight diamond powder in a singlet oxygen environment. No clue, but guessing it'd be a real banger.

[@Hailfire08]

Or liquid ozone...

[@keithyinger3326]

Maybe you need a more powerful oxidizer. It did look like it worked but almost had to be molten to ignite. Maybe like some thermites, it just needs a little bit more help.

[@KClO3]

I've wanted to see this done for so long!

[@brenthinton6855]

Glad to see a new video man! I love the content. Did your old video of making "freedom seeds" get removed for some reason?

[@constantprayerwarrior]

I was wondering the same thing

[@ElementalMaker]

Yep youtube nailed that one and removed it

[@ElementalMaker]

You can still view it on Odysee though

[@brenthinton6855]

@@ElementalMaker awesome thank you. I will follow you over there. It sucks that youtube will do that.

[@cwee3760]

Nice, another video!!

[@tenchi20229]

And my morning just got better!!!

[@hunterrick4]

So glad to see you back. Your humor and knowledge was missed!

[@ronronpyro]

Very interesting, nice work!! 💯

[@slngblde]

Glad to see you back How’s the kid?

[@joshsickles1163]

Thats the good stuff!

[@PyroThunder]

He’s alive!!

[@jjhack3r]

your channel has to be one of my top ten favorites along side *this old tony* and *Lets game it out*

[@nolansykinsley3734]

Industrial diamonds are mined from ancient impact craters where it hit a coal deposit. This creates shock diamonds with tons of inclusions and cracks under 1mm in size. These deposits are mined and processed to make industrial abrasives. You may have heard of Russia finding "3500 years worth of diamonds" it was a discovery of one of these huge impact areas with tons of shock diamonds close to the surface that are only useful for industrial applications.

[@TheGremlin50cal]

really cool concept, might be worth it to try preheating a sample of diamond black powder to just below ignition temperature and letting it soak out for a while, then once the entire sample is almost to ignition temperature push it over the edge, it might be self-sustaining at that point like normal black powder.

[@Primordial_Radiance]

Turning diamond into black powder... Can you show us how to do the opposite?

[@nickbrockelman]

You could use little chunks of magnesium as a grinding agent in your mill. That way even if it does contaminate it will be with something that aids in the final reaction. But I would think that you would need to convert the diamond into carbon before you even Mill it since the crystalline structure of the diamond hinders chemical reactions.

[@DancingRain]

But wait... You didn't try carbon nanotubes or buckyballs 😜 Awesome video nonetheless. I really do enjoy your channel.

[@TheOpticalFreak]

This was very interesting! 🤘😉 Nice work ✨💥😁

[@squirlboy250]

Nice to see you upload! I miss all your funny puns and sense of humor.

[@Aurelleah]

Your voice / video style reminds me of a cross between the actor that plays Kronk in Emperor's New Groove, and AvE. I love it

[@Amipotsophspond]

Diamond Powder is byproduct of jewelry gem diamond cutting, girdle grinding, and polishing, modern diamond cutting involves a saw that gets impregnated with diamond dust that cuts in to the diamond making more diamond dust same for the polishing, girdle grinding 2 diamonds are mounted like gears to each other rubbing and knocking off diamond dust until both have round girdles.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Nice to see you back! Maybe try a diamond flash powder with a chlorate or perchlorate? Should work, and I've never heard of anyone doing it. Never mind, you were obviously thinking the same thing. I should read watch the whole video first! That was really cool!

[@emmepombar3328]

Cool idea, but still put some Al in it.

[@ohnoitsaninja]

Charcoal has a very similar appearing result if you get the ratio of salt too high. I believe the dramatic difference is because the molten salt soaks up too much heat which stalls the chain reaction. You can quickly mix small batches by hand and do test burns to find the ideal ratio for whatever fuel you have, a crude quick mix is good enough to tell. You have excess salt, keep adding fuel until it leaves behind excess fuel.

[@24680kong]

The flame with the diamond black powder might just be the sulfur and nitrate burning (although the sparks might be diamond). From what I can tell, since pure carbon (graphite, diamond) doesn't work well for black powder, the carbon doesn't directly burn. Charcoal contains lots of heavy hydrocarbons with lower boiling points that burn more easily. So I suspect those hydrocarbons are the main thing that burn (or they add enough heat to allow the carbon to burn). That would be interesting because most webpages/books just list carbon in the chemical reaction for black powder. I'm sure someone's written a paper or a book on this...

[@Hailfire08]

Maybe another video could be graphite, a small amount of some hydrocarbon, and the other black powder ingredients?

[@kieronparr3403]

This takes me back to school. Heat a huge pile then blast with O²

[@hutchdw77]

Shout out to Tech Ingredients! Another great channel!

[@ericgillespie2812]

The lead might get pieces of diamond embeded into it kindof like a diamond cutting wheel. Might have worked but i do think its more likely to have just made lead dust. Still a cool thought and might be worth testing

[@darkstepik]

@ElementMaker 8:25 you dont need to put anything in there , use sound vibration, changing frequencies from multiple sides will move the fine dust particles all around , you are not after harmonic frequencies which will produce a geometric distribution seperating the dust from one another but chaotic frequencies

[@peterk8909]

Glad to see you back...oh God, my life is so boring.

[@TheDirtyShaman]

An ultrasonic cleaner could maybe reduce the grain size of the diamond powder, although artificial diamond is generally pure which could reduce or negate its effectivity. You would also most likely need to at least double the amount of sulphur and potassium nitrate in the final product, as diamond is a far denser source of carbon than traditional coal.

[@got2kittys]

The porosity of the carbon particles is increased with a low density carbon source, hence the use of light woods for the black powder carbon. This allows a better penetration of the oxidiser. This effect is very significant with blackpowder. Coal could be used, but would not burn fast enough. It might only be suitable for a fuse, for example. Your fireworks would fizzle.

[@Maser209]

I laughed way more than I should've at the 10,000 grit rating.

[@dirk4926]

The man has diamonds to burn

[@BattleChemist]

Excellent video! Says he can't say the ingredients of the black powder for fear of YT censors... says the ingredients 2 minutes later after sealing the drum. 🤣

[@pulesjet]

Like the idea but not thining it will work. I will keep to my skylytghire stuff

[@teteuscot5098]

8:55. welp, there goes youtube safe

[@Crazymohawk74]

Wonder what it would do as an additive/blend mix with traditional black powder, also it would be interesting to see the gas expansion rates compared

[@HyunAYuchi]

Maybe some of the material from the Ball Mill has contaminated the diamond dust, and causes it to clump when burned; and so needs more oxidizer.

[@shookings]

"I can't tell you what's in it, YT will censor me for wrongspeak!" 2 minutes later: "oh, here's what's in it with the diamond powder". No ban, no censorship, no shadow ban, you came up in my personal feed. A bunch of worry for nothing

[@Kenionatus]

You never know what the algorithm feels like today. It also tends to not pick up on rarer references or even technical terms, probably because of a lack of training data.

[@OutOfNamesToChoose]

Wait long enough and some sulking Safety Sally who's still unsatisfied with the amount of misery in this world will come across the video and try to report it

[@workyurassoph3622]

I would've liked to see the "black" powder he had mixed with the diamond to possibly slow down the burn and give off nice sparks, while still burning.

[@putteslaintxtbks5166]

I think you could've used glass or ceramic marbles, would have a tiny amount of silicon in the mix, but also polished marbles. Daisy sells "Powerline slingshot 1/2" glass slingshot ammo" that should work nice in a ballmill. They're almost undestuctable. I've shot them at rocks and concrete and never got one to chip or crack. Heating potassium chlorate turns it to potassium per chlorate.

[@putteslaintxtbks5166]

Last time I payed about $5 bucks for a 100 of the Daisy ammo.

[@thomasblackwell9507]

Forget “the Ohio Players” you are the one and only original “Canadian Player”. Have a boatload of Molsen’s on me!

[@garycard1456]

Do you think the finely divided diamond will react with manganese heptoxide or, alternatively, Piranha solution? Sodium peroxide? I have my doubts.

[@olheghtt]

Maybe a nice display if you put just a tiny bit 1% or so into a normal BP mix

[@Plastikdoom]

Ok, new idea for a charcoal base. Cotton balls…way less dense than any wood…that stuff should act flash powder, but with a standard ratio, instead of extra potassium.

[@Amipotsophspond]

diamond while it is the hardest(most able to scratch), it is highly brittle and has 4 planes of cleavage. you can hammer and smash it as fine as you would like but your hammer will eventually become slightly impregnated with diamond dust. like crushing eggs with taffy, a piece of egg shell can scratch soft taffy however the egg shell as whole breaks when soft taffy is impacted upon it.

[@KD0LRG]

Sugar based dark powers for the next experiment. Only issue I can see is very hydroscopic.

[@davefellhoelter1343]

I have visions of Granny looking for her tank! Keep on working it out! Would alumina ceramic mill balls do your mill work? without contamination? "I think" these are a harder product? not very costly I Maybe use in my mill

[@amyshaw893]

"The diamond powder is pretty damn flammable, in a pure oxygen environment" To be fair, most things are

[@amyshaw893]

@@tafdiz ah, but some rock are flammable, like coal or sulphur

[@Horschdgerd]

maybe try mixing it with regular black powder and see, if it gives of the same sparks

[@oitthegroit1297]

Now do fullerene-based black powder!

[@miklov]

Wonder if it would sustain the reaction if put in a paper tube and lit on top like a "fountain" type firework thing.

[@BackYardScience2000]

Dude, this is a neat idea! Have you thought about trying to make other gems and things like that? I know that you did Ruby, which is where I got the idea for my Ruby video. But what about others of the same nature?

[@BackYardScience2000]

also, if you can give me a place to send it, I'd like to donate several chems and elements to your channel. I've asked a couple times in the past, but I don't think that you saw my comments. I have nearly every element and over 350 chemicals in stock. So I can really, really hook you up well. Including a couple actinides, groups 1 and 2 metals, a certain halogen at the bottom of the table, as well as many, many different elemental metals and dozens of chems. Just let me know where to send it all and I'll hook your channel up. 😉

[@BackYardScience2000]

oh, as an example, you could use my powdered DU to make the uranyl nitrate needed to make uranium glass. 😃

[@tarstarkusz]

An Abner Perry special, gun powder that won't burn.

[@midbc1midbc199]

Put the diamond powder in a pot to see if it will keep itself lit better

[@alpineclimber247]

Have you seen the movie “Hoodwinked”? You sound like the wolf. I love it!

[@bexpi7100]

It would be interesting to see if it can burn/detonate under pressure. Maybe you could make a rocket grain from it? I don't know how the pressures in a rocket compare to a black powder rifle/musket, but I do wonder if it would work in a rifle/musket.

[@RichardCranium321]

"I didn't realize you could just buy Ultra fine super pure Diamond powder online... lets smoke it to test purity" Hunter Biden's spidey-sense is tingling... apparently he's getting tired of Parmesean. 🤷‍♂️

[@tomjohns8498]

I give you ⭐🌟⭐🌟⭐🌟 for smiles 😃

[@bm936]

What is the other ingredients I need to know because I would like to do the same thing

[@tek4]

If the diamond can be broken down to a less crystalline condition, more back towards carbon black, then it should work alot better. While there is a bunch of micron surface area, your also dealing with crystal lattice structures that will behave differently then the more individualized carbon from willow. This is not backed up by any scientific opinion as I'm just a electrician. But in order to get the carbon more reactive would be the approach. When confined in this structure its way less reactive and thats why it can last threw many many situations. I don't know if roasting the diamond media at ridiculous temptures would break the bonds or if some other method should be used. The reason we value diamonds is there hardness and that is the problem here I think. Graphite is a intermediate stage where sheets of the atoms can slide and break. Diamond is the solid with a incredibly tight atomic structure

[@scrappydoo7887]

That copper tube can be recovered from refrigerator and freezer gas systems 👍

[@keithdavis00]

Your green powder is amazingly fast. Mesquite charcoal is slow as dirt.

[@ElementalMaker]

Thank you! Yes generally the faster growing the wood, the faster the BP it'll produce, I think mesquite is some pretty dense and slow growing, but that would probably be good for certain star compositions

[@karolus28]

cool

[@Mr6Sinner]

What if you mixed this with a thermite powder to keep the burn going?

[@mattparker9726]

I'm pretty sure the discoloration is leftover carbon from whatever reaction they used.

[@josephgermany7446]

First rule of making any pyrotechnic composition, NEVER mix the ingredients together in a mixer/grinder. Especially with any media like mill balls, cones or rods. That is, unless you're trying to blow yourself up.

[@matthewf1979]

If there was a way to grind the diamond down to the particulate size of the other powders, I’m sure it would be more successful.

[@BytebroUK]

I'm gonna guess that the diamond holds on the carbon so *hard* that it's not available in the reaction.

[@tlinrin887]

You might try and source some alumina mill balls.

[@Dragonrider616]

"OH my God, it smells like a hot bag of shit."- For some reason this was the most hilarious thing I've ever heard. 🤣 Great video by the way, very interesting and informative.

[@stihl888]

I wonder how well this diamond powder recipe would work in the Senko Hanabi (japanese sparklers). EDIT; I commented before your mention of this same subject...

[@robertwoodson4175]

What about adding carbon see if the diamond powder will mill it down finer

[@maxonmathew4557]

That one guy on KZbin who burns diamonds for fun

[@jeffallen3382]

I wonder what would happen if this diamond powder was used in a rocket motor? One with an O2 added oxidizer to the mix?

[@jessec4677]

Is the structure of diamond more dense in carbon atoms? Maybe the mix just needs more oxidizer than normal..

[@thatguynameddan2136]

Ok, that was pretty neat, even if it smelled like hot shit. Good to see you back!

[@pXnEmerica]

Can someone link the thermal paste vidjeo?

[@adhishkrishna4381]

How to make a fast burning flash powder using potassium nitrate aluminium and sulfer can you please tell me it's ratio