REVOLUTION IN DIAMOND SYNTHESIS: A unified mechanism of diamond crystallogenesis in nature and in laboratory synthesis. The law of diamond crystallogenesis

A recently discovered revolutionary method of diamond synthesis [9], which does not require extreme pressure and temperature, challenges the generally accepted concept of diamond formation and forces it to be revised. A new mechanism of rapid diamond crystal growth is proposed, which can explain this phenomenon. In the new mechanism of diamond synthesis, the main active factor is electrons. We called it the "electronic mechanism of diamond crystallogenesis". The electronic mechanism of diamond synthesis shows that high pressure and temperature are not direct acting factors, they are a trigger that starts the real (electronic) mechanism of diamond synthesis. The electronic mechanism of diamond formation is masked by pressure and temperature and is not manifested explicitly. This has created the illusion that pressure and temperature are the acting factors of diamond formation. The electronic mechanism of diamond crystallogenesis is based on a catalytic process in which catalysis is realized by electrons. Electrons change the oxidation state of carbon, which "switches on" the Coulomb interaction and leads to the launch of the diamond synthesis reaction. A new formulation of diamond formation has been given: "Diamonds are formed from atomic carbon in the low oxidation state C^(-4)". The basis for new technologies of ultra-fast diamond synthesis are discoveries in the field of catalysis, which fall under the concept of "catalyst-free catalysis". These are Electric-Field Catalysis, the concept of "electron as a catalyst" and overcoming the Sabatier prohibition.