Blue mystery: What is older than a billion years, originally the size of a golf ball, as rare as 1 in 22 million, carries a curse, and was stolen from Marie-Antoinette? What once belonged to French, Russian, and British royalty and an American heiress who offered it as ransom in 1932 for the kidnapped Lindbergh baby? What arrived wrapped in a plain brown paper bag at the Smithsonian Institute in 1958 through U.S. registered mail, insured for $1 million? Yes: it is the Hope diamond. At 45.52 carats, it is the largest, most perfect blue diamond in existence. Boron impurities within its carbon lattice are responsible for the diamonds deep sapphire blue, its semiconductivity, and phosphorescence. The Hope glows an eerie reddish-orange for a few minutes after exposure to ultraviolet light - a phenomenon not previously encountered in diamonds. While this trait is inexplicable, it has solved another mystery - the provenance of a Russian blue-diamond stick-pin. Long suspected of being cut from the same stone as the Hope, it displays an identical phosphorescent fingerprint.
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Related Record from CAplus
Why does the Hope diamond glow red? Despite old rumors, chemistry - not a curse - is the key. Griffiths, Jennifer. Analytical Chemistry 2008, 80(7), 2295-2296 (Eng).
148: 537435 Diamonds. Stoelevik, Reidar E. NTNU, Norway. Kjemi 2007, 67(5), 16-18 (Norweg). A history of diamonds is presented, including stories about famous diamonds such as the Hope diamond. The crystal structure of diamond is explained and there is a discussion of artificial diamonds, types of diamonds, meteoritic diamonds, etc.
130: 198845 Hope springs eternal. Butler, Anthony; Nicholson, Rosslyn. School of Chemistry, University of St. Andrews, Fife, UK. Chemistry in Britain 1998, 34(12), 34-36 (Eng). A review with 4 refs. is given on the Hope diamond, including a discussion of chem. causes of color in diamonds and an explanation for the blue color of Hope.
120: 34633 Spectrophotometric study of blue diamond in gold ring from the Russian State Fund. Kulakov, V. M.; Sedova, E. A.; Kabishov, A. V. Nauchno-Issled. Inst. Dragotsen. Met. Almazov, Russia. Mineralogicheskii Zhurnal 1992, 14(5), 98-100 (Russ). The previously unknown blue diamond in a ring which is preserved in State Fund of Russia has been studied for its optical absorption in UV-visible and IR regions of the spectrum and photoluminescence. The diamond is semiconductive diamond of IIb type. According to absorption spectra the chromaticity coordinates, dominant wave-length, and color purity are calcd. for blue diamond in the ring and of dark-blue diamond in the pin from Diamond Fund of Russia. The results of studies permit including blue diamond in the ring in the list of world-known unique blue diamonds.
48: 67410 Type-IIb diamonds. Custers, J. F. H. Diamond Research Lab., Johannesburg, S. Afr. Physica 1954, 20 183-4 (Eng). Most diamonds only transmit light to a wave length of about 3000 A. and fluoresce in the near ultraviolet (Type-I diamonds). Some, however, transmit down to 2250 . and do not fluoresce in the near ultraviolet (Type-II diamonds). A new type, IIb, is reported, which shows strong phosphorescence when irradiated by shortwave ultraviolet light in the region of 2500 A. and which conducts electricity. It may be that all blue diamonds belong to this class.
52: 28562 Type IIb diamonds. Custers, J. F. H. Diamond Research Lab., Johannesburg, S. Afr. Physica 1954, 20 183-4 (Eng). Type IIb diamonds, which are transparent to ultraviolet light down to 2250 A. and show strong phosphorescence when irradiated with 2500-A. light, also conduct electricity. Twenty-one stones of this type studied are all light blue in color. Possibly their properties are due to lattice defects.
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Updated: 5/4/2009 1:51:00 PM
